Google fires more workers over pro-Palestinian sit-ins in New York offices, totaling 50
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JANUARY 25: Cars drive near Google offices on January 25, 2023 in New York City. The U.S. Justice Department and a group of eight states sued Google accusing it of illegally abusing a monopoly over the technology that powers onli
NEW YORK - Google has fired at least 20 more workers in the aftermath of pro-Paelstinian protests bringing the total number of terminated staff to over 50.
The company said it fired the workers after its investigation gathered details from coworkers who were "physically disrupted."
They also said the investigation identified employees who used masks and didn’t carry their staff badges in order to hide their identities.
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, according to AP.
Google said that it carefully confirmed that "every single one of those whose employment was terminated was personally and definitively involved in disruptive activity inside our buildings."
Google headquarters is seen in Mountain View, California, on September 26, 2022. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Google protests
Protesters claim that the company is allegedly enabling the Israeli government to surveil Palestinians and force them off their land.
No Tech For Apartheid, the group organizing the protests cites "Project Nimbus," a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 by Google and Amazon.
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Last week, Google fired "over 20" more staffers, "including non-participating bystanders during last week’s protests," said Jane Chung, a spokeswoman for No Tech For Apartheid, without providing a more specific number.
This comes as Pro-Palestinian protests over the Israel-Hamas war have pitted students against one another across the United States, including at Columbia University and New York University in NYC.
Students are demanding their schools condemn Israel's assault on Gaza and divest from companies that sell weapons to Israel.
"Google’s aims are clear: the corporation is attempting to quash dissent, silence its workers, and reassert its power over them," Chung said in a press release.
"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."
The Mountain View, California, company had previously signaled that more people could be fired, with CEO Sundar Pichai indicati ng in a blog post that employees would be on a short leash as the company intensifies its efforts to improve its AI technology.
It is unclear how many employees were fired from New York offices and if there would be more.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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