Walkout at Google Sparked 20,000 Workers to Protest

Photograph credit: Google Walkout for Change

More than 20,000 Google workers participated in Th's walkout to protest workplace sexual harassment at the tech giant.

On Friday, the walkout's organizers released the estimate. Co-ordinate to them, employees and contract workers at fifty Google offices across the world joined in on the protest.

The massive turnout may have likewise sparked the tech giant to human action. "On Friday morning, executives notified the organizers that Google CEO Sundar Pichai would be coming together with his leadership team on Mon to review a programme that would address the demands," the organizers said in a statement.

The protest came in response to The New York Times reporting that Google gave lucrative leave packages to 2 senior executives who were forced to resign over credible sexual misconduct charges. One of the executives, Android founder Andy Rubin, reportedly received $90 million.

However, organizers of the walkout claim The New York Times' original written report only offered a glimpse into the workplace sexual harassment and bigotry that occurs at the visitor. "For every story in the New York Times, there are thousands more than, at every level of the visitor. About have not been told," the walkout'due south organizers say.

Google Walkout

Credit: Google Walkout for Change

Friday'due south argument from the organizers includes a story from an anonymous employee who claims Google'southward man resources tried to silence her when she brought up an incident of sexual misconduct past another co-worker. "Every day, I went into work. I cried in the auto for an 60 minutes, and I went into work and faced my harasser until I could non practice it anymore, and I left that team," the employee recounted.

The walkout's organizers are demanding five specific changes at Google. They include the right to settle harassment claims in court, a commitment to catastrophe "pay and opportunity inequity," and for Google to create a clearer process for reporting sexual misconduct.

Google didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. But company CEO Sundar Pichai has told employees he's "dead serious" about stopping workplace sexual harassment at the tech giant. Last week, the company revealed it had fired 48 employees for sexual misconduct over the past two years; none of the employees received an get out package.

Of the walkouts that occured on Thursday, the rally at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California, was the largest, with 4,000 workers present, according to organizers. The walkout in New York, meanwhile, drew most 3,000 staffers. Only at the moment, it isn't clear how the organizers arrived at their estimates.

Too, not every Google employee participated in the walkout. One staffer told Phonation that some people at the tech behemothic disagree with the organizer'southward demands.

Google's parent, Alphabet, reported employing 94,000 people in this year'south third quarter.