Google fires 28 over Israel & labor condition protests
Employees in Google offices in New York and California staged sit-ins, partially over the company contracting its cloud services to the Israeli government.
Protests at Google offices in New York and California have led to the firing of 28 employees this week. The employees that were terminated engaged in sit-in protests of labor conditions, as well as protests of Google Cloud contracts with the Israel government and military. Google issued a statement saying that these protests had taken over office spaces, defaced company property, impeded other workers and made them feel threatened.
Google’s statement over said protests was shared by sources such as Daily Wire journalist Kassy Akiva, who posted the statement via her personal social media. Reportedly, the protests in Google’s offices in Sunnyvale, California and New York went as far as to include a demonstration in in Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office. According to Google, the protests were in violation of its company policies, including its Code of Conduct, Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct, and Workplace Concerns policies. Employees that refused to leave peacefully were arrested by police authorities and removed from the premises.
Source: Kassy Akiva
The situation between Israel and Palestine has become a hot button topic worldwide in light of Israel’s overwhelming use of military force in Gaza and other Middle Eastern regions. Protests against American government and company support of Israel have been widespread, including airport protests such as one that blocked access to Chicago O’Hare, as reported by Newsweek. Obviously, tech companies supporting Israel government and military activity have not avoided the fracas. The 28 employees fired for protesting join roughly 1,000 more that were let go by Google earlier this year in layoffs.
As the controversial activity of Israel in the Middle East continues to remain heated, it seems likely that it may be bleed over further into tech in similar manners such as this week’s firings at Google. Stay tuned as we continue to watch for further updates and news.
