More than 650 Google employees signed a petition asking the tech giant to halt donations to any political action committees or individual politicians because activists said lawmakers were “responsible” for appointing Supreme Court justices. who voted to reverse Roe v. Wade earlier this year. ,
The company’s demand to shut down those donations is part of a larger request by workers for better protection for Google employees and users following the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision that called for abortion restrictions and harsher restrictions on the procedure. triggered. states across the country.
According to a copy of the petition shared with The Hill, “protect our government from corporate influence,” the workers wrote. “Alphabet should stop lobbying politicians and any political organizations through netpacks or any other means because these politicians were responsible for appointing Supreme Court judges who overturned Roe v. Wade and removed voting access and gun control.” Continuing to infringe on other related human rights issues.”
The employee also asked the company to expand travel benefits for workers who use abortion to part-time and contract employees, add user data privacy controls for healthcare activity, and address misinformation about abortion access in search results are saying.
“We, the undersigned, recognize that all Alphabet activists, of all genders, are affected by the overturning of Roe v. Wade and are disappointed by the reaction and impact of Alphabet on this decision,” the activists wrote.
The petition was sent to Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other top executives on Monday. A company spokesperson declined to comment.
Google’s affiliate NetPAC donated roughly the same amount last year to both Democratic and Republican federal candidates, giving roughly $290,000 to both, according to data from the research group OpenSecrets.
According to data from OpenSecrets, NetPAC specifically donated $69,500 to Republican Senate candidates, including donations of up to $9,000 to senators who voted to confirm one or more of former President Trump’s Supreme Court appointees. who did Roe v. Voted to kill Wade. PAC gave $27,000 to Democratic Senate candidates over the same period.
Following the Supreme Court’s June decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, Google sent employees an email saying the company’s health insurance plan would cover out-of-state medical procedures that would be necessary for the employee to live and work. are not available for sale, according to a copy of the letter reported by The Verge.
The petition asks Google to extend the “same travel-for-health benefits” offered to full-time employees to temporary, vendor and contract workers.
The petition also asked Google to add at least seven days of additional sick time because workers may need to travel to receive health services and to increase the reimbursement amount for travel from $50 for all workers. Might have to do $150 per night.
The court’s decision highlighted privacy concerns and ways in which user data, including reproductive health data or an abortion service discovery, could be used to target people seeking abortion in states where the procedure is now illegal. Is.
Activists call on Google to “immediately” set up user data privacy controls for health-related activity, the pursuit of reproductive justice or abortion to “never be rescued, handed over to law enforcement, or treated as a crime”. Calling for information like
The petition also asked the company to correct “misleading search results” related to abortion services by removing results for “fake abortion providers”.
An analysis published earlier this week by Bloomberg News found that searches on Google Maps for abortion clinics routinely misled users, instead of displaying results for so-called crisis pregnancy centers that do not provide abortion services and Encourage patients to continue their pregnancy.
The analysis found that crisis pregnancy centers accounted for an average of a quarter of the top 10 search results nationwide, and accounted for five or more of the top 10 results in 13 states.
Google told Bloomberg in response to the analysis that it works to bring out business results that are relevant and accurate and that the company works to remove businesses that use policies about misrepresenting themselves. violate them when they know about them.