No tech for apartheid: Google workers protest in the wake of Israel’s war on Hamas and the Apple Watchdog group
Google is not the only Silicon Valley giant to see worker activism related to Israel’s war on Hamas. Over 300 Apple workers signed an open letter in late March that said they had been retaliated against because of their support for Palestinians.
Israel’s military assault on Gaza, which began after Hamas killed about 1,100 Israelis on October 7, has added new fuel to the internal opposition to Project Nimbus. The Israel Defence Forces have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians since bombing and moving into Gaza last fall.
Project Nimbus has been the target of protests by Google and Amazon workers for years. After details of the cloud contract became public, a group called No Tech for Apartheid was formed featuring tech workers from two Muslim and Jewish groups.
WIRED couldn’t verify that all of the workers in New York and Sunnyvale had been arrested or charged. A person involved in coordinating the protests says the New York workers were arrested with desk appearance tickets, which specify when a person must appear in court. A request for comment from Google was not immediately responded to.
Hundreds of people protested outside of the company’s offices in Seattle, New York, and Sunnyvale during the sit-ins. The number of employees participating was a small number.
A worker protests that they won’t be leaving. A man in uniform then introduces the officers as NYPD and delivers a final ultimatum, saying the workers have a last chance to walk out freely. “If not, you can be arrested for trespass,” he says. Police officers cuffed the protesters when they wouldn’t go.
No Tech for Apartheid: Google’s New York office fired by its Google employees for violating US legal protections based on the 2023 New York protest
Google’s workforce comprises the vast majority of employees of parent Alphabet, which reported a headcount of more than 180,000 at the end of 2023. Protesters at the New York office of Google say they have support within the company and not just those that took part in the protest.
Some of the people who were fired were involved in less provocative action than those who occupied offices, says Jane Chung, a spokeswoman for No Tech for Apartheid.
Some, she said, had simply attended an outdoor protest and taken a t-shirt handed out by organizers. Others were “flyering outside, standing near the protesters for safety.”
The company is accused of violating the US legal protections for workers by arresting a former employee for occupying its New York office for more than ten hours.
Google spokesperson Anna Kowalczyk said in a statement that the employees were terminated after internal investigation” concluded they were guilty of “physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities.” She stated that law enforcement had to remove them from the office because they refused to leave. The Nimbus contract is “not directed” at classified or military work, she said.
