Google fired 28 employees on Wednesday, according to an internal memo seen by CNBC, after a series of protests over the company's labor conditions and contracts providing the Israeli government and military with services. cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
The news comes at nine o'clock a day Google workers were arrested for trespassing Tuesday night after staging a sit-in at the company's offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, including one at the CEO's office. Google Cloud executive Thomas Kurian.
Several workers arrested in New York and Sunnyvale, who spoke to CNBC earlier on Wednesday, said that during the protest they had their accounts and offices locked out, placed on administrative leave and placed on administrative leave. asked to wait to return to work until contacted. by personnel.
On Wednesday night, a memo sent out by Chris Rackow, Google's vice president of global security, told Google employees that “following an investigation, today we terminated their employment.” We will continue to investigate and take action if necessary.” .”
According to the workers involved, the arrests, which participants streamed live on Twitch, came after protests outside Google offices in New York, Sunnyvale and Seattle that attracted hundreds of participants. attend. The protests were led by the organization “No Tech for Apartheid”, focusing on Project Nimbus – Google and Amazon's $1.2 billion contract to provide the Israeli government and military with services cloud computing, including AI engines, data centers, and other cloud infrastructure.
“Tonight, Google indiscriminately fired more than two dozen workers, including those of us who were not directly involved in the 10-hour sit-in,” No Tech for Apartheid said in a statement. on two historic coasts yesterday”. in the years we have been organizing against Project Nimbus, we have yet to hear from a single executive about our concerns. Google workers have the right to peacefully protest about our terms and conditions of employment.
Sunnyvale protesters sat in Kurian's office for more than nine hours until their arrest, writing demands on Kurian's whiteboard and wearing shirts that read “Googlers Against Genocide.” In New York, protesters sat in three-story communal spaces. Five workers from Sunnyvale and four workers from New York were arrested.
“On a personal level, I am opposed to Google receiving any military contracts — regardless of whether they are part of the government,” Cheyne Anderson, a Google Cloud software engineer based in Washington, told CNBC earlier on Wednesday. Which government or what exactly is that contract? . “And I take that stance because Google is an international company and regardless of which military it belongs to, there will always be people on the receiving end…represented in Google's employee base and also in its human base.” our use.” Anderson flew to Sunnyvale to protest at Kurian's office and was one of the workers arrested Tuesday.
“Google Cloud supports many governments around the world in the countries where we operate, including the government of Israel, with our existing cloud computing services,” a Google spokesperson said. told CNBC on Wednesday night, adding: “This work is not geared towards very sensitive, classified matters or military workloads related to weapons or intelligence services.”
The protests show Google's growing pressure from workers protesting the military's use of cloud technology and AI. Last month, Google Cloud engineer Eddie Hatfield interrupted a keynote speech by the chief executive of Google's Israel business with: “I refuse to build technology that supports genocide.” Hatfield is then was fired. That same week, an internal Google employee message board was shut down after employees posted comments about the company's military contracts with Israel. A spokesperson at the time described the posts as “divisive content that disrupts our workplace”.
On October 7, Hamas carried out deadly attacks on Israel, killing 1,200 people and taking more than 240 hostages. The next day, Israel declared war and began a siege of Gaza, cutting off access to electricity, food, water and fuel. The region's Health Ministry said at least 33,899 people have died in the Gaza Strip since that day. said Wednesday in a statement on Telegram. In January at the United Nations' top court, Israel denied the accusation of genocide South Africa delivers.
Israeli Ministry of Defense reportedly sought consulting services from Google to expand access to Google Cloud services. Google Photos is one platform used by the Israeli government to conduct surveillance in Gaza, according to The New York Times.
“I think what happened yesterday is evidence that Google's efforts to suppress all voices opposing this contract are not only ineffective but actually have the opposite effect,” said Ariel Koren, former employee of the contract. Google employee, who resigned in 2022 after leading efforts to promote this contract. objected to the Project Nimbus contract, told CNBC earlier on Wednesday. “It really just creates more agitation, more anger and more commitment.”
The New York sit-in began at noon ET and ended around 9:30 p.m. ET. According to Hasan Ibraheem, a Google software engineer based in New York City and one of the arrested workers, security asked the workers to remove their two-story spanning banner.
“I realized, 'Wow, the place I work for is very complicit and supportive of this genocide — I have a responsibility to act against it,'” Ibraheem told CNBC earlier on Wednesday. Ibraheem added, “The fact that I'm receiving money from Google and Israel is paying Google – I'm receiving part of that money and that weighs heavily on me.”
The New York workers were released from the police station after about four hours.
The workers also protested their working conditions – specifically that “the company must end its harassment, intimidation, bullying, silencing and censorship of Palestinian, Arab, and Palestinian Google employees.” Islam – and the company must address the health and safety crisis for employees, especially those at Google.” Cloud, are facing potential impacts from their work,” according to the campaign's press release.
“A small number of protesting employees entered and disrupted some of our locations,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC Wednesday night. “Physically obstructing the work of other employees and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies and is completely unacceptable behavior. Next Upon refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement proceeded to remove them to ensure the safety of the office. We have so far concluded the individual investigations that resulted terminated the labor contracts of 28 employees and will continue to investigate and take action if necessary.”
Read the full memo below.
Google employees,
You may have seen reports of protests at some of our offices yesterday. Unfortunately, some staff members brought this event into our buildings in New York and Sunnyvale. They take up office space, deface our property, and disrupt the work of other Googlers. Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive and made colleagues feel threatened. We have investigated the employees involved and cut off their access to our systems. Those who refused to leave were arrested by law enforcement and removed from our offices.
After an investigation, today we terminated the employment of 28 employees found to be involved. We will continue to investigate and take action as necessary.
Behavior like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it. This clearly violates many policies that all employees must adhere to — including our Code of Conduct and Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct and Concerns at work.
We're a place of business, and every Google employee is required to read our policies and apply them to how they behave and communicate in our workplace. The majority of our employees do the right thing. If you are one of the few who are inclined to think we will ignore violations of our policies, think again. The company takes this matter very seriously, and we will continue to apply our long-standing policies to take action against disruptive behavior — including termination.
You should expect to hear more from leaders about behavioral standards and workplace discourse.
Chris
