Former Google Employees Say Firing for Protesting Israel Contract Was Unlawful

Google this month announced the termination of 28 employees for disrupting work during protests. A group of workers at Alphabet Inc’s Google have filed a complaint with a US labor board, alleging that the tech company unlawfully fired them for protesting its cloud contract with the Israeli government. The complaint was filed with the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) by a group affiliated with some of the workers, known as No Tech For Apartheid.

The complaint claims that Google’s actions interfered with the workers’ rights under US labor law to advocate for better working conditions. Reuters was unable to obtain a copy of the complaint, and Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The workers were fired while protesting Project Nimbus, a $1.2 billion contract jointly awarded to Google and Amazon.com to supply cloud services to the Israeli government.

The workers allege that the project supports Israel’s development of military tools. Google, however, has clarified that the Nimbus contract is not aimed at highly sensitive, classified, or military workloads relevant to weapons or intelligence services. Zelda Montes, a former Google employee who was arrested during a protest of Project Nimbus, stated that the company fired workers to suppress organizing and send a message to its workforce that dissent would not be tolerated.

Montes expressed that Google is attempting to instill fear in its employees. The workers filing the NLRB complaint are seeking reinstatement to their jobs with back pay, as well as a statement from Google committing not to violate workers’ rights to organize. The NLRB general counsel, responsible for reviewing and attempting to settle claims with merit, can pursue cases before administrative judges and a five-member board appointed by the US president if settlements fail.

*(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed. )*