Submitted 8 months ago by UNIX84@beehaw.org to technology@beehaw.org
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/-rcna148333
“Google issued a stern warning to its employees, with the company’s vice president of global security, Chris Rackow, saying, “If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again,” according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC.”
Isn’t it illegal to fire protesting workers? At least here in Germany its illegal as far as I know. But it must be a protest event (which it seems to be).
My understanding is that in America, you’re only allowed to protest in ways that don’t interfere with capital interests.
That reads like something out of South Park. :D
Every time I read what’s going on in the USA and how so many countries want to emulate it, the cynic in me thinks that we kind of deserve what we’re getting.
yup
Please note that Germany has (compared to other EU members) quite strict and company-friendly protesting laws.
Such protests may be even considered as political protest (Politischer Streik) which makes them not illegal per se but could be illegal. bpb.de/…/ein-bisschen-verboten-politischer-streik…
Yes, I don‘t think such protests would fall under the general protesting laws as they have nothing to do with your working conditions.
Oh no, here in America we have FREEDOM. the freedom to work! We have something called “right to work” which means we have the RIGHTS to work and quit a job with no contracts. We also gave up every single worker protection for these supposed rights, but since it was named right to work we are meant to believe it’s good for us
You’re confusing At-Will employment with Right-to-Work.
Right to work laws make it illegal to require union membership for employment at a place with a union.
At-Will Employment makes it legal for the employee or employer to terminate employment at-will.
I think you’re talking about “at-will” employment, which allows the employer or employee to terminate employment for no reason at any time. Only Montana doesn’t have that (unfortunately for the rest of us), and employers must show good cause for termination after a set probationary period. “Right-to-work” means that you can’t be required to join a union or pay fair share fees as a requirement of employment. 26 states have this on the books.
I live in a state with both laws, and it sucks as much as you’d imagine… (mainly because it’s fairly indicative of other issues throughout the state).
That is not at all what right to work means.
I get the frustration, but if you're going to criticize a thing, it's a lot more effective if you actually know what the thing is.
The don’t be evil to you must help us commit genocide pipeline
What did they think would happen? Google removed “don’t be evil” a long time ago.
It got on the news. They sacrificed their jobs for that at least.
Love all the people that see repercussions for protesting and their first thought is ‘boy, those guys sure we’re stupid. Now they’ve lost their jobs’
Maybe the people doing the protests accepted that as a risk they were willing to take? Perhaps even the next steps were mass resignations? Hmmmmmm
Yes, maybe all those commenters could be simply called self-censored vendor locked in. This is also not the first time Google has been firing critical voices, it is quite frankly tempting to say “it happens all the time”.
So, protesting for human rights is “violating Google policies”???
Do no evil.
Why did you put the question marks there?
“Don’t be evil.”
Google would like to apologize for that inadvertent mistake. All efforts are being made to identify how this came to be and to avoid doing the same in the future.
Google is complicit in mass murder.
Is it not perfectly fine to fire people who think it’s OK to come into an office and disrupt work for 9 hours and force law enforcement to be called. I can’t think of a single place that wouldn’t sack me on the spot for doing that.
I’m not fully aware of us protest laws but i was under the impression to protest you had to do it on public property. Seems like this is blown out of proportion because the writer agrees with the cause.
Imo their issue was in not forming a broader union coalition before picking their workplace
Would a union be able to do this? I feel like a union doing this would be just as bad but Google might hesitate to fire them due to union backlash.
That’s a convenient way to make troublemakers go away. Even it some of these terminations technically have a valid justification, it gives the appearance the company is looking for an excuse to fire critics.
Protesters probably need to be more savvy and respectful, but also need better defense against retribution.
I am pretty sure they could sue for wrongful termination if they conducted their protest properly and respectfully. You can’t fire someone for exercising a right.
Google would murder every single one of these people for that contract get real. I can’t see how anyone expected to keep their jobs after this.
I’m just shocked it went on for like 8h lmao
🤖 I’m a bot that provides automatic summaries for articles:
Google has fired more than two dozen employees for protesting its $1.2 billion contract to provide the Israeli government and military with cloud and artificial intelligence services. Physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities is a clear violation of our policies, and completely unacceptable behavior. “This excuse to avoid confronting us and our concerns directly, and attempt to justify its illegal, retaliatory firings, is a lie,” it said in a statement late Wednesday, accusing the company of valuing its contract with the Israeli government more than its employees. Google issued a stern warning to its employees, with the company’s vice president of global security, Chris Rackow, saying, “If you’re one of the few who are tempted to think we’re going to overlook conduct that violates our policies, think again,” according to an internal memo obtained by CNBC. The Israeli prime minister’s office and the Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment from NBC News. The workers were also protesting labor conditions at the company — saying the contract was affecting “health and safety on the job” — and what they said was Google’s disregard “for the well-being of our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim colleagues facing Google-enabled racism, discrimination, harassment, and censorship.” — Saved 69% of original text.
sonori@beehaw.org 8 months ago
Well on the bright side, getting fired from one of the largest mega corps in the world for complaining about the company’s providing resources to kill civilians is a hell of a thing to be able to put on your resume.
On the not so bright side, I don’t like being a background character in a cyberpunk story.
Hazzia@discuss.tchncs.de 8 months ago
From what I’ve seen, being a main character in one would suck way worse though.
sonori@beehaw.org 8 months ago
Probably, but I would much rather be a background character in the intro to a space opera instead.