Google has fired over 20 additional employees following protests last week against the company’s cloud computing contract with the Israeli government. According to No Tech for Apartheid, the group that organized the protests, Google fired over 20 additional workers on Monday night, bringing the total number of terminated staff to over 50. The activist group claims that Google’s firings are an aggressive and desperate act of retaliation against workers who participated in or supported the protests. Google confirmed that it had terminated additional employees but did not provide a specific number. A spokesperson said the employees “were found to have been directly involved in disruptive activity.” The spokesperson added that Google carefully confirmed the involvement of each employee before terminating their employment. Google initially fired over two dozen workers last week following sit-ins at its offices in New York City and Sunnyvale, Calif., protesting a $1.2 billion contract that the company shares with Amazon to provide cloud computing services to the Israeli government. The tech giant said some employees “took longer to identify because their identity was partly concealed–like by wearing a mask without their badge–while engaged in the disruption.” The controversial contract at the center of the protests, known as Project Nimbus, has faced backlash from workers and activists since it was initially signed in 2021. However, objections to the cloud computing agreement have escalated amid Israel’s ongoing military campaign in Gaza in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 surprise attack. No Tech for Apartheid alleged Monday that Google “is attempting to quash dissent, silence its workers, and reassert its power over them.” The group added: “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. That’s because Google values its profit, and its $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government and military, more than people.”
Google Fires 20 More Employees After Israel Contract Protests
