Google workers worldwide take to the streets out over women’s rights
Google workers worldwide took to the streets Thursday to protest female employees rights.
Thousands of the employees around the world briefly walked off their jobs to protest the company’s response to sexual harassment and demand that the world’s largest search engine address rising concerns about workplace inequality.
The protests took place in waves, beginning in Asia and then streaming across Europe and North America, with the final wave occurring at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.
The protests, which drew Google contract workers as well as employees, followed a New York Times report last week that Google in 2014 gave a $90 million exit package to a senior vice president, Andy Rubin, after he was accused of sexual harassment.
“This was the $90 million straw that broke the camel’s back,” Celie O’Neil-Hart, one of the protest organizers and who works on YouTube marketing, told reporters as she joined hundreds of other employees in the courtyard of Google’s Mountain View headquarters. “But there are so many stories that we’ve heard for so long, and it’s time for action and change,” said O’Neil-Hart as she teared up.
Rubin denied the allegation in the New York Times story, which he said contained “wild exaggerations” about his compensation. Google did not dispute the report.
Organizers said about 60 percent of Google’s offices participated, including Dublin, the company’s largest site outside the United States, as well as London, Zurich, Berlin and Singapore. They shared photographs on social media of hundreds leaving offices.
Workers hold signs outside 14th street park after walking out as part of a global protest over workplace issues in New York, U.S.
Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai, speaking an hour later at a New York Times conference in New York, said he was taking note of the “concrete steps” workers presented to improve the company’s culture and human resources processes.
“I want to make sure Google sets the bar,” he said, noting that a lack of gender and racial diversity was part of the issue. “We’re grappling with it, as with many places.”
