Connect with us

Published

on

Google has fired 28 employees over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at the search giant’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, to protest the companys business ties with the Israel government, The Post has learned.

The pro-Palestinian staffers — who had donned traditional Arab headscarves as they stormed and occupied the office of a top executive in California on Tuesday — were terminated late Wednesday after an internal investigation, Google vice president of global security Chris Rackow said in a companywide memo.

“They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers,” Rackow wrote in the memo obtained by The Post. Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened.

In New York, protesters had occupied the 10th floor of Google’s offices in the Chelsea section of Manhattan as part of a protest that also extended to the companys offices in Seattle for what it called No Tech for Genocide Day of Action.

Behavior like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it,” Rackow wrote. “It clearly violates multiple policies that all employees must adhere to including our code of conduct and policy on harassment, discrimination, retaliation, standards of conduct, and workplace concerns.

Rackow added that the company takes this extremely seriously, and we will continue to apply our longstanding policies to take action against disruptive behavior up to and including termination.

The fired staffers are affiliated with a group called No Tech For Apartheid, which has been critical of Googles response to the Israel-Hamas war.

The group had posted several videos and livestreams of the protests on its X account including the exact moment that employees were issued final warnings and arrested by local police for trespassing.

The protesters have demanded that Google pull out of a $1.2 billion Project Nimbus contract in which Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services provide cloud-computing and artificial intelligence services for the Israeli government and military.

Critics at the company raised concerns that the technology would be weaponized against Palestinians in Gaza.

The impacted workers blasted Google over the firings in a statement shared by No Tech For Apartheid spokesperson Jane Chung.

This evening, Google indiscriminately fired 28 workers, including those among us who did not directly participate in yesterdays historic, bicoastal 10-hour sit-in protests, the workers said in the statement.

This flagrant act of retaliation is a clear indication that Google values its $1.2 billion contract with the genocidal Israeli government and military more than its own workers the ones who create real value for executives and shareholders.

“Sundar Pichai and Thomas Kurian are genocide profiteers, the statement added, referring to Google’s CEO and the CEO of its cloud unit, respectively.

We cannot comprehend how these men are able to sleep at night while their tech has enabled 100,000 Palestinians killed, reported missing, or wounded in the last six months of Israels genocide and counting.”

Subscribe to our daily Business Report newsletter!

Please provide a valid email address.

By clicking above you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Never miss a story.

An NYPD spokesperson said the Tuesday protest involved approximately 50 participants in total and confirmed four arrests were made for trespassing inside the Google building.

The Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety said the protest in California consisted of around 80 participants. A total of five protesters who refused to leave the Google office were arrested without incident for criminal trespassing, booked and released, a spokesperson added.

It couldnt immediately be learned if all nine arrested employees were among those who were fired. Google had earlier placed the employees on administrative leave and cut their access to internal systems.

Last month, Google fired a software engineer who publicly blasted one of the companys Israel-based executives during a tech conference in New York City.

When reached for comment, a Google spokesperson confirmed the firings.

These protests were part of a longstanding campaign by a group of organizations and people who largely dont work at Google, the spokesperson said in a statement.

A small number of employee protesters entered and disrupted a few of our locations. Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior.

We have so far concluded individual investigations that resulted in the termination of employment for 28 employees, and will continue to investigate and take action as needed, the spokesperson added.

The demonstrators stormed the personal office of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian in Sunnyvale.

Kurians custom-made, framed Golden State Warriors jersey was visible on the office wall in the background of the livestream, and employees wrote a list of their demands on his white board.

The companywide memo can be read in its entirety below.

Googlers,

You may have seen reports of protests at some of our offices yesterday. Unfortunately, a number of employees brought the event into our buildings in New York and Sunnyvale. They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers. Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened. We placed employees involved under investigation and cut their access to our systems. Those who refused to leave were arrested by law enforcement and removed from our offices. 

Following investigation, today we terminated the employment of twenty-eight employees found to be involved. We will continue to investigate and take action as needed.

Behavior like this has no place in our workplace and we will not tolerate it. It clearly violates multiple policies that all employees must adhere to including our Code of Conduct and Policy on Harassment, Discrimination, Retaliation, Standards of Conduct, and Workplace Concerns.

We are a place of business and every Googler is expected to read our policies and apply them to how they conduct themselves and communicate in our workplace. The overwhelming majority of our employees do the right thing. If youre one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again. The company takes this extremely seriously, and we will continue to apply our longstanding policies to take action against disruptive behavior up to and including termination. 

You should expect to hear more from leaders about standards of behavior and discourse in the workplace.

Chris

Continue Reading

Sports

Sovereignty outduels Journalism to capture Derby

Published

on

By

Sovereignty outduels Journalism to capture Derby

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Sovereignty outdueled 3-1 favorite Journalism down the stretch to win the 151st Kentucky Derby in the slop on Saturday.

Trainer Bill Mott won his first Derby in 2019, also run on a sloppy track, when Country House was elevated to first after Maximum Security crossed the finish line first and was disqualified after a 22-minute delay.

This time, he knew right away.

Sovereignty won by 1½ lengths and snapped an 0-for-13 Derby skid for owner Godolphin, the racing stable of Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

It was quite a weekend for the sheikh. His filly, Good Cheer, won the Kentucky Oaks on Friday and earlier Saturday, Ruling Court won the 2,000 Guineas in Britain.

Sovereignty covered 1¼ miles in 2:02.31 and paid $17.96 to win at 7-1 odds.

Journalism found trouble in the first turn and jockey Umberto Rispoli moved him to the outside. He and Sovereignty hooked up at the eighth pole before Sovereignty and jockey Junior Alvarado pulled away.

Baeza was third, Final Gambit was fourth and Owen Almighty finished fifth.

Rain made for a soggy day, with the Churchill Downs dirt strip listed as sloppy and horse racing fans protecting their fancy hats and clothing with clear plastic ponchos.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Continue Reading

Sports

Zilisch to miss Xfinity race in Texas after wreck

Published

on

By

Zilisch to miss Xfinity race in Texas after wreck

FORT WORTH, Texas — Connor Zilisch, the 18-year-old driver already with two NASCAR Xfinity Series race wins, will miss Saturday’s race at Texas because of lower back injuries sustained in a last-lap wreck at Talladega.

Trackhouse Racing said Wednesday that its development driver will return as soon as possible to the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet. The team didn’t provide any additional details about Zilisch’s injuries.

Cup Series regular Kyle Larson will drive the No. 88 in Texas. After that, the Xfinity Series has a two-week break before racing again May 24 at Charlotte.

Zilisch, sixth in points through the first 11 races, was driving for the win at Talladega Superspeedway when contact on the backstretch sent his car spinning, and head-on into inside wall.

Zilisch won in his Xfinity debut at Watkins Glen last Sept. 14. He added another win this year at Austin, the same weekend that he made his Cup Series debut. He has six top-10 finishes in his 15 Xfinity races.

Continue Reading

Sports

23XI, Front Row ask judge to toss NASCAR claim

Published

on

By

23XI, Front Row ask judge to toss NASCAR claim

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The two teams suing NASCAR asked a judge to dismiss the sanctioning body’s counterclaim in court Wednesday.

In a 20-page filing in district court in North Carolina, 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports opposed NASCAR’s motion to amend its original counterclaim. The teams argued that the need to amend the counterclaim further demonstrates the weakness of NASCAR’s arguments, calling them an attempt by NASCAR to distract and shift attention away from its own unlawful, monopolistic actions.

NASCAR’s counterclaim singled out Michael Jordan’s longtime business manager, Curtis Polk. Jordan is co-owner of 23XI Racing.

The legal battle began after more than two years of negotiations on new charter agreements — NASCAR’s equivalent of a franchise model — and the 30-page filing contends that Polk “willfully” violated antitrust laws by orchestrating anticompetitive collective conduct in connection with the most recent charter agreements.

23XI and Front Row were the only two organizations out of 15 that refused to sign the new agreements, which were presented to the teams last September in a take-it-or-leave-it offer a mere 48 hours before the start of NASCAR’s playoffs.

The charters were fought for by the teams ahead of the 2016 season and twice have been extended. The latest extension is for seven years to match the current media rights deal and guarantee 36 of the 40 spots in each week’s field to the teams that hold the charters, as well as other financial incentives. 23XI and Front Row refused to sign and sued, alleging NASCAR and the France family that owns the stock car series are a monopoly.

NASCAR already has lost one round in court in which the two teams have been recognized as chartered organizations for the 2025 season as the legal dispute winds through the courts. NASCAR has also appealed a judge’s rejection of its motion to dismiss the case.

Continue Reading

Trending