Oracle staff protest Ellison's planned fundraiser for Trump
Thousands of Oracle employees are calling for co-founder Larry Ellison to cancel a fundraising event he plans to host at his Coachella Valley California estate later on Wednesday for US President Donald Trump. More than 2,500 employees of the organisation have so far signed an online petition at the Change.org, asking the company's leadership to join them in standing up against what they called "Ellison's damaging association with the Trump campaign".
"Larry Ellison's personal implicit endorsement and financial support of Donald Trump not only damages our brand perception and misrepresents the diverse views of our company, but it adversely affects the morale of the individuals and communities who comprise Oracle," a group called "Oracle Employees for Ethics" said in the petition.
The group alleged that Trump does not reflect Oracle's stated ethics related to diversity and inclusion, environmental responsibility, gender equity and sexual harassment.
In the letter, the US President was called a "divisive" person.
"We are signing this petition because we want our voices heard and we refuse to be complacent and complicit in Larry Ellison's support of such a divisive person," said the letter addressed to "Dear Oracle Leadership".
"As Oracle employees, we must hold our leaders accountable for upholding their ethical responsibilities.
"Ellison's financial support of Donald Trump endangers the well-being of women, immigrants, communities of colour, the environment, LGBTQ and trans communities, disabled people, and workers everywhere," the letter added.
Protests by employees over the conduct of technology companies have become more common in Silicon Valley over the past couple of years.
Google shut down a military AI project and pulled out of competing for a multi-billion dollar Pentagon cloud computing contract following protests by employees, according to a report in ZDNet.
