Google fired at least 20 more workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war, bringing the total number of terminated staff to more than 50, a group representing the workers said.
It's the latest sign of internal turmoil at the tech giant centered on 鈥淧roject Nimbus,鈥 a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.
Workers held sit-in protests last week at Google offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California. The company responded by calling the police, who made arrests.
The group organizing the protests, No Tech For Apartheid, said the company fired 30 workers last week 鈥 higher than the they had announced.
Then, on Tuesday night, Google fired 鈥渙ver 20鈥 more staffers, 鈥渋ncluding non-participating bystanders during last week鈥檚 protests,鈥 said Jane Chung, a spokeswoman for No Tech For Apartheid, without providing a more specific number.
鈥淕oogle鈥檚 aims are clear: the corporation is attempting to quash dissent, silence its workers, and reassert its power over them,鈥 Chung said in a press release. 鈥淚n its attempts to do so, Google has decided to unceremoniously, and without due process, upend the livelihoods of over 50 of its own workers.鈥
Google said it fired the additional workers after its investigation gathered details from coworkers who were 鈥減hysically disrupted鈥 and it identified employees who used masks and didn't carry their staff badges to hide their identities. It didn't specify how many were fired.
The company disputed the group's claims, saying that it carefully confirmed that 鈥渆very single one of those whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings.鈥
The Mountain View, California, company had previously signaled that more people could be fired, with CEO Sundar Pichai indicati that employees would be on a short leash as the company intensifies its efforts to improve its AI technology.
