Salesforce Employees Sign Petition to Have Company Stop Doing Business With NRA – NBC Bay Area

With images of the horrific and deadly shooting in Texas still fresh in their minds, thousands of Bay Area tech workers are now telling their bosses they no longer want to sell their software to the NRA.

Thousands of Salesforce workers have signed a petition asking the company to stop doing business with the gun rights group.

“The NRA uses Salesforce products to drive marketing and fundraising efforts,” said Carolina Milanesi, president of creative strategies at Salesforce. “It is unconscionable to consider their use of marketing cloud (a salesforce product) ​to capitalize on mass shootings.”

Milanesi tracks tech and said Silicon Valley is especially ripe for this type of in-house activism.  

“I do really believe that the younger generation is more keen on making their voices heard,” she said. “Ethics and morals and values are really important, and right now we’re in a moment where power is in the hands of the workers more than the organizations.”

Walkouts at Google have happened over the company’s handling of sexual harassment charges. 

Salesforce employees are petitioning Marc Benioff to drop the NRA as a client. NBC Bay Area’s Raj Mathai spoke to Business and Tech Reporter Scott Budman who has the full story.

And at Netflix, in solidarity with the trans community, denouncing the company’s decision to continue to work with comedian Dave Chappelle.

Even Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has sounded off on tech activism, recently telling CNBC, “Do you want to have a great culture, do you want your company to be doing the right thing, or do you want to always be defending the next issue?”

As the Salesforce protest gathers steam on social media, employees said they feel optimistic changes will be made.

Among the things those employees said, they feel Salesforce has always been a progressive company, that their values do not line up with those of the NRA, and that they have faith their leaders will make the changes they want to see.