Google Fires Employees , for Protesting Israel Contract.
28 Google workers have been fired for protesting a $1.2 billion contract that the company has with the Israeli government and military to provide cloud and AI services, NBC News reports.
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The firings follow an April 16 sit-in at Google's offices in California, New York and Seattle in which nine workers were arrested.
The group that coordinated the demonstration is known as No Tech for Apartheid.
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Google issued a statement about the recent firings.
A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted a few of our locations.
, Google spokesperson, via statement.
Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior.
, Google spokesperson, via statement.
We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed, Google spokesperson, via statement.
No Tech for Apartheid claims that the workers were fired "indiscriminately.".
This excuse to avoid confronting us and our concerns directly, and attempt to justify its illegal, retaliatory firings, is a lie, No Tech for Apartheid, via statement.
Meanwhile, many of Google's workers have reportedly quit after experiencing "mental health consequences of working at a company that is using their labor to enable a genocide," No Tech for Apartheid said.
On a personal level, I am opposed to Google taking any military contracts — no matter which government they’re with or what exactly the contract is about.
, Cheyne Anderson, a Google Cloud software engineer based in Washington who was arrested during a sit-in, to CNBC
