Google employees walk out to protest
Carrying signs with messages such as “Don’t be evil,” several hundred Google employees around the world briefly walked off the job Thursday in a protest against what they said is the tech company’s mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations against executives.
Employees staged walkouts at offices from Tokyo and Singapore to London and New York, with more expected to do so in California later in the day, reflecting a #MeToo-era backlash among women against frat-house misbehaviour in heavily male-dominated Silicon Valley.
In Dublin, organizers used megaphones to address the crowd of men and women to express their support for victims of sexual harassment. Other workers gathered indoors, in conference rooms or lobbies, to show their solidarity with abuse victims.
Protesters in New York carried signs with such messages as “Not OK Google” and “Don’t Be Evil” — a mocking reference to Google’s onetime motto.
Designer Leeung Li Jo, said in New York that she wanted to show support for the #MeToo movement “so we can have a comfortable working environment.”
“Time is up on sexual harassment, time is up on systemic racism, time is up on abuses of power! Enough is enough!” organizer Vicki Tardif Holland shouted, her voice hoarse, at a gathering of about 300 people in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
The walkouts reflected doubts among some of the 94,000 employees at Google and its corporate parent Alphabet Inc. that the company is adhering to its own dictum in the Alphabet corporate code of conduct: “Do the right thing.”
Protest organizers said Google has publicly championed diversity and inclusion but hasn’t done enough to put words into action.
In an unsigned statement from organizers, the protesters called for an end to forced arbitration in harassment and discrimination cases, a practice that requires employees to give up their right to sue and often includes confidentiality agreements.
They also want Google to end pay inequity, issue a report on sexual harassment inside the company and adopt a clearer process for reporting complaints.