By firing 28 employees who protested a contract with the Israeli government, Google made a strong statement that the government market is valuable and important.
On Wednesday, dozens of employees staged sit-ins at the company’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. Some of them occupied the office of Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google’s cloud division.
According to published reports, these employees did not leave Mr. Kurian’s office until they were removed by law enforcement.
The employee group now calls them Nimbus 9. This was because they were protesting Google’s Project Nimbus work with the Israeli government.
Amazon is another cloud provider involved in Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract to supply cloud and other related services, including artificial intelligence, to Israel.
Nimbus began in 2021 and has been a source of friction for some Google employees who are concerned that Google is supporting the Israeli military. Google said Nimbus is “not intended for sensitive classified or military workloads.”
The layoffs were first reported by The Verge. Watch the video below this article for the CNBC interview with reporter Alex Heath who reported this story, which aired Thursday night.
A group of employees had problems with Nimbus from the beginning and organized against it. In a statement posted on Medium, employees said they had been in discussions with Nimbus for three years and had not heard from executives about their concerns.
They claimed the firings were retaliatory.
For those who follow Google, the layoffs mark a significant change in the company’s direction.
In 2018, Google terminated its artificial intelligence contract with the U.S. Department of Defense, Project Maven, after pressure from its employees. It gave the impression that Google was not interested in government work.
But Google has been building a government business. The company created a Google Public Sector subsidiary in 2022 and hired CEO Karen Dahut, who previously ran the defense business at Booz Allen Hamilton.
The company has also invested in cloud infrastructure, giving it the highest level of storage for sensitive and confidential data.
Even so, 28 employees is a huge number. However, reading Google’s statement, it appears the protesters went too far by disrupting the workplace and refusing to leave.
Protests broke out on Wednesday, and employees were fired on Thursday. Google cited violations of its code of conduct and policies regarding harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct, and workplace issues.
“We are a business, and all Googlers are expected to read our policies and apply them to their behavior and communications at work,” the statement said. “If you’re one of the few people tempted to think we’ll overlook violations of our policies, think again.”
The statement also suggests that further layoffs or other actions may be taken while the company continues its investigation.
This is a watershed moment when you think about Google’s public image and the culture it’s trying to portray.
Google was founded with the motto “Don’t be evil.” When the company underwent his 2015 reorganization and created Alphabet as Google’s parent company, its motto became “doing the right thing.”
Although the motto “Don’t be evil” has been removed, the company’s code of conduct still contains the following statement at the end:
“And remember…don’t be evil. If you see something that doesn’t seem right, speak up!”
However, there seems to be a limit to what can be said. Google probably doesn’t have a problem with employees protesting Project Nimbus, but it has clearly drawn a line in the sand and doesn’t want people to cross it.
“I think what was really shocking was that 28 employees were laid off here. I’ve been covering the technology industry for a long time and I see these kinds of selective layoffs, but 28 people… I don’t see anything like that…it was meant to send a message.” @alexeheath Regarding Google’s firing of employees due to protests. pic.twitter.com/9bplvx3gx8
— Last Call (@LastCallCNBC) April 18, 2024
