Google fires 28 workers for protesting against an Israeli cloud deal.
By
April 19, 2024
Google announced on Thursday that it had fired 28 employees who took part in protests against the company’s cloud contract with the Israeli government. The Alphabet unit explained that a small group of protesting employees disrupted work at a few office locations, which violated company policies and was unacceptable behavior.
After conducting individual investigations, Google terminated the employment of these 28 workers and stated it would continue to investigate and take necessary actions. In response, workers associated with the No Tech for Apartheid campaign called the terminations a “flagrant act of retaliation,” asserting that protesting peacefully about labor conditions is a right.
The protests revolve around Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract awarded to Google and Amazon.com in 2021 to provide cloud services to the Israeli government. Protesters argue that this contract supports the development of military tools by the Israeli government. However, Google maintains that the Nimbus contract does not involve sensitive military workloads.
This incident is not the first time Google employees have protested against company contracts. In 2018, they successfully persuaded Google to cancel a contract with the US military, known as Project Maven, which aimed to analyze aerial drone imagery with potential military applications.
