Posted on 05/01/2024 8:38:49 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Dozens of Google workers who were fired for protesting the tech giant’s cloud deal with the Israeli government filed a complaint on Monday with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) over their termination.
The complaint, obtained by The Washington Post, alleges that Google violated the workers’ rights by “terminating and/or placing them on administrative leave in response to their protected concerted activity, namely, participation (or perceived participation) in a peaceful, non-disruptive protest that was directly and explicitly connected to their terms and conditions of work.”
The workers are seeking reinstatement of their jobs and back pay, alleging that Google had “unlawfully retaliated” against them for engaging in “peaceful” protest, Jane Chung, a spokesperson for No Tech for Apartheid, was quoted as saying by the New York Post.
No Tech for Apartheid, the group organizing the protests, claimed that Google fired over 20 workers on April 23, including non-participating bystanders.
This adds to the 30 workers fired last week for their involvement in sit-in protests at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, bringing the total number of terminated workers to over 50 people.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The protests targeted a $1.2 billion deal known as Project Nimbus that provides artificial intelligence technology to the Israeli government.
The fired workers contend that the system is being lethally deployed in the Gaza war.
“Google’s aims are clear: the corporation is attempting to quash dissent, silence its workers, and reassert its power over them,” the group said in an April 23 press release.
“In its attempts to do so, Google has decided to unceremoniously, and without due process, upend the livelihoods of over 50 of its own workers,” it added.
The activist group has vowed to continue organizing until their demands are met: for Google to “drop Project Nimbus and stop powering Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza now.”
Project Nimbus was signed in 2021. It involves joint cloud computing and AI services provided by Google and Amazon to the Israeli government. Google has said that the program is not being utilized for military or intelligence purposes.
Google has said that it fired the workers after gathering details from coworkers who were “physically disrupted” and it identified employees who used masks and didn’t carry their staff badges to hide their identities. Google didn’t specify how many were fired.
In a blog post on April 18, Google CEO Sundar Pichai hinted that workers will be on a short leash as the company intensifies its efforts to improve its AI technology at a pivotal moment in the industry and, potentially, humanity. He did not openly refer to a specific incident.
“But ultimately we are a workplace and our policies and expectations are clear: 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,” Mr Pichai wrote.
“We have a duty to be an objective and trusted provider of information that serves all of our users globally,” he added.
It’s not the first time Google workers have protested against some of the company’s ventures and its approach to AI development.
A previous protest by employees in 2018 resulted in Google’s termination of a contract with the U.S. Department of Defense called “Project Maven.” The contract was largely focused on assisting armed forces with military video analysis.
Despite this, Google has remained largely unaffected by the internal uproar.
From a financial perspective, the company continues to flourish through revenue obtained through its main sources, primarily digital advertising and a dominant search engine.
Good luck with that. They waged a politic protest at work, not a job action. Good riddance.
They should sue the ex employees for defamation for accusing them of this stupid retarded term of genocide. They have / had a responsibility to not defame their employer as being employees of Google, their statements carry more weight in the court of public opinion. A company cannot be forced to hire and pay people who actively engage in working against the company. Teach this scum they should be happy with loss of pay and not be in jail.
The Federal courts should decline to take it.
Of course they filed a complaint. They’re libs and believe they are entitled . . .
Hope they reem Google’s smarmy butt.
I don’t understand the basis?
I read it three times and see zero actual real world basis.
[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,”]
If ya have a job and go to work, then work.
Now if work tries to make ya take a virtually untested jab, one that harmed several people during testing, and that data was hidden from you, well then, I’m on your side, workers.
Is this the group that broke into the CEO’s office and trashed the place? If so, that isn’t a peaceful sit in.
They are just trolling for publicity and a financial settlement.
EC
Can you even begin to imagine the hell that they would cause if they were allowed to come back???
They would know they could do ANYTHING and get away with it - not showing up for work, theft, lying, selling co secrets - the sky would be the limit if they are allowed to do whatever they want with zero consequences.
Not a fan of google but I hope their legal team is on this. Google is a workplace, not a nursery school. If they don’t agree with what is being manufactured or sold where they work, get another job at a company whose politics/business dealings line up with yours.
Or, here’s a thought - they could go to work, get a paycheck and go home without getting involved.
Google = CIA. Nobody's going to grind anybody's gumper. The spooks will inform any prospective judge that it is not in their own best interest to allow a trial.
“Google has decided to unceremoniously, and without due process, upend the livelihoods of over 50 of its own workers,” it added.”
😘👌
Beautiful, f-ing beautiful. This is what happens when the participation trophy school kids get jobs. They are entitled to everything without having to work for it and can whine and cry when they don’t get their way or aren’t held accountable for their actions.
“I realized, ’Oh, the place that I work at is very complicit and aiding in this genocide — I have a responsibility to act against it,″” Hasan Ibraheem, a Google software engineer based in New York City, told CNBC. Ibraheem added, “The fact that I am receiving money from Google and Israel is paying Google — I am receiving part of that money, and that weighed very heavily on me.”
If his workplace is The Holocaust II, then why is he working there???? They have absolutely no work ethic nor morals. I hope this follows them everywhere and makes employment impossible.
And then we have this:
“That same week, an internal Google employee message board was shut down after staffers posted comments about the company’s Israeli military contracts.”
Wow, Google. You got your hands full on this one.
Indeed but hungry lawyers know how to snag the stupid ones for some bucks.
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