Google workers protest company’s ‘brute force intimidation’

Berland addressing fellow employees about how the company put him on administrative leave, during a rally near a Google office in San Francisco on Nov 22, 2019. — Reuters

Google employees demonstrated outside the company’s San Francisco office on Nov 22 to protest the Internet giant’s recent decision to put two staff members on leave.

The event is the latest sign of a growing rift between management and rank-and-file workers at Alphabet Inc’s Google, which was once praised for its open corporate culture. Protesting staff believe the company is trying to quell internal activism and quash dissension about Google’s work with the military and other potentially controversial customers.