Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s yearlong war with Hamas.

Microsoft has fired two employees who organized an unauthorized vigil at the company’s headquarters for Palestinians killed in Gaza during Israel’s war with Hamas.

The two employees told The Associated Press they were fired by phone call late Thursday, several hours after a lunchtime event they organized at Microsoft’s campus in Redmond, Washington.

Both workers were members of a coalition of employees called “No Azure for Apartheid” that has opposed Microsoft’s sale of its cloud-computing technology to the Israeli government. But they contended that Thursday’s event was similar to other Microsoft-sanctioned employee giving campaigns for people in need.

“We have so many community members within Microsoft who have lost family, lost friends or loved ones,” said Abdo Mohamed, a researcher and data scientist. “But Microsoft really failed to have the space for us where we can come together and share our grief and honor the memories of people who can no longer speak for themselves.”

Microsoft said Friday it has “ended the employment of some individuals in accordance with internal policy” but declined to provide details.

Google earlier this year fired more than 50 workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war. The firings stemmed from internal turmoil and sit-in protests at Google offices centered on “Project Nimbus,” a $1.2 billion contract signed in 2021 for Google and Amazon to provide the Israeli government with cloud computing and artificial intelligence services.

  • Jackthelad@lemmy.worldEnglish
    4727·
    2 months ago

    Why would you organise this on company headquarters without the consent of the company?

    If you tell your employers that you hate the way they operate, what do you think is going to happen?

      • Jackthelad@lemmy.worldEnglish
        2714·
        2 months ago

        You can go on a protest whenever you want. Don’t expect your employers to be enthusiastic about it if you organise one in your workplace, however.

          • Jackthelad@lemmy.worldEnglish
            15·
            2 months ago

            If Israel wanted to commit a genocide in Palestine, they could literally carpet bomb the entire place in a day and be done with it.

            • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              1 month ago

              While they could power-wise, they won’t because that’d be too overt. They have to keep the meat grinder at a steady pace so as not to have countries coming in to stop them. Slow genocide is how they win. If you kill a little at a time countries think they can’t act on it or behave like they can’t.

      • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 month ago

        I don’t think this is any of that though. Company property isn’t public property. The company can refuse service to people and require people to have permits for assembly. Employees don’t need to sit down and stfu, but there are ways to properly organize and do all the things they want without getting fired

    • distortwave@lemmy.mlEnglish
      2410·
      2 months ago

      It’s called a protest. Social movements protest to get a message across.

      You think they’d get permission?

      Also, this isn’t really a protest… A vigil. Microsoft is a trash corporation. None of this is surprising.

      • JigglySackles@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        1 month ago

        So hold it elsewhere? Why does it have to be at a business? Seems a weird place to have a vigil anyways. Why not somewhere more somber or respectful?

    • Venia Silente@lemm.eeEnglish
      154·
      2 months ago

      Well, given the kind of company, it’s not like you’d obtain a consent if you asked. They’re too busy getting that Israeli money.

      • Jackthelad@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1822·
        2 months ago

        If you work for a company, you’re a representative of that company. If you disagree with the businesses they work with, don’t work for that company.

        Or if you really have a problem and want to express yourself, don’t do it at your workplace. It’s stupid.

        • Venia Silente@lemm.eeEnglish
          254·
          2 months ago

          If you work for a company, you’re a representative of that company.

          I’m not. Corporate is paying for my work (and barely, at that, given current rates), not for my ethics or for my ethical standing before other people who might not work at the company. If you believe otherwise, you might have been brainwashed by corporate-paid education.

          • Jackthelad@lemmy.worldEnglish
            822·
            2 months ago

            It’s literally how employment works. Unless you’re self-employed, you represent the people who pay you.

              • distortwave@lemmy.mlEnglish
                143·
                2 months ago

                Last I checked we sell our labor power, not our entirety of our existence.

                Ppl seem to rly want slavery modes of labor back again. Sad

                  • distortwave@lemmy.mlEnglish
                    51·
                    2 months ago

                    Gotcha. Microsoft against vigils. Like I said I’m not surprised since it’s a garbage company.

                  • Jiggle_Physics@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    3·
                    2 months ago

                    It has been shifting to every waking hour for a while now. Your behavior is being monitored to a greater, and greater, extent everyday, and the big companies, that truly own the economy, are becoming more, and more, likely to take punitive actions against you for anything you do, at any time, because “as an employee you are a representative of our company”.

                  • TheOubliette@lemmy.mlEnglish
                    21·
                    2 months ago

                    Employers in the US often include “morality clauses” that mean they can fire you because they deem you to be harming the reputation of the company due to behavior outside of work.

                    More importantly than “the rules”, though, US employers can fire you for basically any reason they want and then just lie about it. Nobody is going to force them to be truthful. Not even if they are union busting. The Biden-Harris NLRB, which the president dragged his feet staffing and staffed with wet blankets, has even upheld the Trump NLRB Electrolux decision - and the vast majority of people never get to the point of launching a lawsuit that would be relevant, as it costs tens of thousands of dollars.

                    If you want power in the workplace you need to organize a union competently and develop capacity real leverage (direct action, community support, naming and shaming).

            • Venia Silente@lemm.eeEnglish
              3·
              2 months ago

              They didn’t even hand me a uniform or a qt cap, and they work with Node.js despite several warnings; I ain’t representing shit.

    • Skeezix@lemmy.worldEnglish
      22·
      2 months ago

      Microsoft doesn’t really care about the employees politics. The problem was that the employees were actively trying to lower profits by shrinking the market