Workers staged sit-in protests this week at the company’s offices in Seattle, New York and Sunnyvale, California over Project Nimbus, a joint contract to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud and artificial intelligence services.
  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    10·
    2 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Google has fired more than two dozen employees for protesting the company’s $1.2 billion contract to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud and artificial intelligence services.

    Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior.

    “This excuse to avoid confronting us and our concerns directly, and attempt to justify its illegal, retaliatory firings, is a lie,” it said in a statement late Wednesday, accusing the company of valuing its contract with the Israeli government more than its employees.

    Google issued a stern warning to its employees, with the company’s vice president of global security, Chris Rackow, saying, “If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again,” according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC.

    The Israeli prime minister’s office and Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News.

    The workers were also protesting labor conditions at the company — saying the contract was impacting “health and safety on the job” — and what they said was Google’s disregard “for the well-being of our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim colleagues facing Google-enabled racism, discrimination, harassment, and censorship.”

    The original article contains 672 words, the summary contains 209 words. Saved 69%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
    4·
    2 months ago

    Protesting working conditions or compensation is legally protected. Unfortunately, protesting politics on the clock is legal grounds for termination as refusal to work. Even worse, they’ll be ineligible for unemployment at hearing.

    Know your rights or partner with a union representative before demonstrating at work. There are many ways to do this and keep your job. It’s import to keep the law on your side.

  • CableMonster@lemmy.ml
    59·
    2 months ago

    What else would you expect them to do if workers are at work protesting? It could be the most virtuous cause, but they only have one sensible option because you cant trust they have the companies best interst in mind.