Google terminates employees protesting against Project Nimbus

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
18 Apr 2024 16:49
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From arrests to job termination, Google is going the extra mile to consecrate its collaboration with "Israel".

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators demanding Google to end its cooperation with the Israeli occupation entity lay on the ground draped in white sheets with a mock version of the Google logo spelling out the word “genocide” in San Francisco, California, on December 14, 2023 (AFP)

Alphabet Inc.'s Google recently terminated 28 employees who participated in protests against Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion collaboration with Amazon.com Inc. This joint venture aimed to supply the Israeli occupation with AI and cloud services amid the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

Demonstrations organized by the No Tech for Apartheid group occurred at Google offices in New York City, Seattle, and Sunnyvale, California on Tuesday.

In New York and California, protesters held a sit-in lasting nearly 10 hours, while some recorded the events, including through a Twitch livestream. Nine individuals were arrested that evening on alleged trespassing.

The incident was also confirmed via footage taken by one of the protesters and sent to The Washington Post, showing officers from the New York Police Department walking into the company premises and telling protesters they would be arrested if they didn’t stop.

When the employees refused, the police began to arrest them one by one.

Dive deeper

After the protests, some workers, even those not participating directly in the sit-in, received communication from Google's Employee Relations team notifying them of being placed on leave.

The company emphasized confidentiality, stating they would disclose information only on a need-to-know basis. Subsequently, on Wednesday evening, the affected workers were notified of their dismissal, as reported by a statement from members of Google staff involved in the No Tech for Apartheid campaign.

“Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior,” Google said in a statement about the protesters.

“After refusing multiple requests to leave the premises, law enforcement was engaged to remove them to ensure office safety. 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,” it added.

Google has traditionally upheld a culture of fostering open discussions, yet in recent years, employee activism has challenged this stance. Organizers of a 2018 walkout protesting Google's handling of sexual assault allegations claimed the company retaliated against them for their activism. Additionally, four other employees alleged they were terminated for leading opposition against Google's collaboration with federal Customs and Border Protection, along with other workplace advocacy efforts.

According to John Logan, a labor professor at San Francisco State University, under US labor law, employees have the right to participate in collective action concerning their working conditions. Tech workers are expected to argue that this should empower them to unite in opposition to the utilization of the tools they develop.

“Tech workers are not like other kinds of workers,” he said. “You can make an argument in this case that having some sort of say or control or ability to protest about how their work product is being used is actually a sort of key issue.”

Two Google employees who participated in the California protest said, as quoted by Bloomberg, that a contingent of workers congregated on the sixth floor of Google's Sunnyvale office, where the office of Cloud Chief Executive Officer Thomas Kurian is situated to demonstrate solidarity with those engaged in the sit-in. The method by which Google identified participants in the protest remains ambiguous, as not all individuals had their badges scanned by security personnel. Additionally, some of those who were terminated were reportedly situated outside Google's office premises, as indicated by the employees.

Another worker said as quoted by Bloomberg that Google might have labeled the decision to initially suspend employees as "confidential" to maintain a positive public image. According to the worker, the demonstrators promptly exited the building when requested and didn't impede or disturb other employees.

Meanwhile, employees protesting against Project Nimbus have witnessed increased backing following the sit-in, according to one of the terminated workers.

The big picture

This comes mere days after Google negotiated with the Israeli occupation to deepen their partnership during the brutal war on Gaza, which has entered its seventh month recently with nearly 34,000 Palestinians killed, mostly women and children, a Google document viewed by the TIME news site revealed.

The tech giant has provided cloud computing services for the Israeli occupation for years.

The Israeli Ministry of Security requested consulting help from Google to broaden its access to Google Cloud, aiming to enable "multiple units" to utilize automation technologies. A draft contract dated March 27, 2024, indicates that Google billed the Israeli Ministry more than $1 million for this consulting service.

A Google employee's comment on the document dated March 27, requesting a signed copy of the contract, mentioned that the signatures would be "completed offline as it’s an Israel/Nimbus deal." The document also states that Google gave the Ministry a 15% discount on the initial consulting fee as part of the "Nimbus framework".

Project Nimbus is a contentious $1.2 billion cloud computing and AI deal involving the Israeli government and two tech giants, Google and Amazon.

Key figures in a growing movement within Google dubbed No Tech for Apartheid are pushing for the cancellation of Project Nimbus with "Israel" in the wake of the ongoing Israeli genocide against Palestinians.

Google employees cited three primary concerns driving their protests: first, the Israeli Finance Ministry's explicit statement in 2021 indicating that Project Nimbus would serve the Ministry of Security; second, the types of services potentially made available to the Israeli government through Google's cloud platform; and third, Google's apparent inability to oversee how "Israel" utilizes its technology.