Google revealed on Thursday (April 18) that it had fired 28 employees after some of them took part in protests against the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government, The Guardian informed.
The Alphabet unit reported that a small number of protesting employees entered and disrupted work at several unspecified offices.
Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior.
The company claimed it had finalised separate investigations that resulted in the dismissal of 28 employees. The enquiry would continue, with action being taken when necessary, the statement added.
Google employees affiliated with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign called the dismissals a “flagrant act of retaliation”, arguing that some employees who were not directly involved in Tuesday’s protests were also among those fired.
Google workers have the right to peacefully protest about terms and conditions of our labor.
The protesters claimed that Project Nimbus, a $1.2-billion contract awarded to Google and Amazon.com in 2021 to provide cloud services to the Israeli government, supported the Israeli government’s development of military instruments. However, Google argues that the contract with Nimbus is “not directed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services.”
In 2018, protesting Google employees convinced the company to shelve Project Maven, a contract with the US military designed to analyse drone images with potential military applications.
