In a significant corporate policy shift, Google has responded to employee protests against its involvement in a technology deal with Israel by terminating the employment of more than 50 workers. This series of dismissals came after employees at the company’s New York and Sunnyvale offices held sit-ins to protest “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract to provide cloud computing and artificial intelligence services to the Israeli government.
The employee-led group, No Tech for Apartheid, claimed that over 20 additional staff, including some who were not involved in the protests, were fired subsequent to the initial dismissals, suggesting an extensive crackdown on dissidents within the company. Google has rebutted the accusations, stating that all individuals let go were “definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings.”
CEO Sundar Pichai’s internal memo makes clear the company’s stance: “This is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics.”
“The Israel-Hamas war is dividing employees in ways that I don’t think the debate over police brutality, for instance, ever did,” said David Primo, a professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester in New York.
This situation underscores a growing corporate reticence to engage with divisive political issues, as revealed in a survey by Chief, which found that nearly 9 in 10 C-suite leaders are wary of taking public stances in a polarized climate. The shift comes after a period of increasing employee activism and public corporate engagement on social issues, which has recently faced significant pushback, including conservative-led backlash against companies perceived as promoting “woke” policies.
Google’s actions represent not only a hard-line stance against workplace disruptions but also a broader trend in the corporate world where visible brands, having witnessed the politicization of companies like Disney and the resultant conflicts, are adopting a ‘say less’ policy on contentious social issues. The tightening of the job market in tech and the limited legal protections for employee speech and activism have contributed to this sea change.
The firings have further ignited the debate on the role of corporations in geopolitical conflicts. Critics have accused Google of prioritizing business over ethical considerations and silencing workers’ voices. However, the company has defended its actions, explaining that the protests contravened company policy by occupying office spaces and disrupting work.
Relevant articles:
– Google’s Gaza conflict: Why more bosses are cracking down on Israel-Hamas war protesters, USA TODAY, 04/28/2024
– Google fires more workers who protested its deal with Israel, ABC News, Sat, 27 Apr 2024 09:57:35 GMT
– Workers accuse Google of ‘tantrum’ after 50 fired over Israel contract protest, The Guardian, Sat, 27 Apr 2024 11:16:00 GMT
– Google lays off 20 more employees over Israel project protests; says “each fired worker had …”, The Times of India, Sat, 27 Apr 2024 03:56:00 GMT
– A Fired Google Engineer on Protesting the Company’s ‘Terrible Path in Their Pursuit of Money at the Expense of Human Life’, Hell Gate, Thu, 25 Apr 2024 17:20:00 GMT