Google Fires 28 Workers Following Protests Against Israeli Government Contract
In a bold move, Google has fired 28 workers after protests erupted at the company’s New York and Sunnyvale, Calif., offices over a cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. The protests, organized by employees affiliated with the group No Tech For Apartheid, saw dozens of workers participating in sit-ins and nine employees being arrested for trespassing.
The tensions between Google’s management and activist employees have been simmering for years over Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion deal with Amazon to supply the Israeli government with cloud services, including artificial intelligence. The recent conflict in Gaza has only deepened the divide, with Google firing an employee who disrupted an Israeli technology conference and planning changes to a corporate forum due to employee bickering about the conflict.
Google has stated that the protests violated company policies and were unacceptable behavior, leading to the dismissals. However, employees argue that they have the right to peacefully protest labor conditions and that some of those fired did not participate in the sit-ins.
The Nimbus contract, announced in 2021, has raised concerns among some Google employees who fear the company is aiding Israel’s military. Google has clarified that the contract is not intended for highly sensitive or military workloads related to weapons or intelligence services.
This is not the first time Google employees have taken a stand against controversial contracts. In 2018, workers successfully pushed the company to end a deal with the U.S. Defense Department known as Project Maven, which would have assisted the military in analyzing drone videos.
Despite the firings, employees involved in the Nimbus activism have vowed to continue protesting until Google drops the project. The company has stated that it will continue to investigate the protests that took place on Tuesday.
