Freelance Technology Employees of the Giant Sales Force Learn about Work for the GOP Republican National Committee

Although the tech giant Salesforce has one of the most freelance workforces in the United States — and the company’s founder, Marc Benioff, is known as the “wasting CEO” — many employees seem to was largely abandoned about one notable client: the Republican National Committee.

And according to an internal Slack notice obtained by The Daily Beast, some workers are unhappy.

“Unfortunately, except for a few empty words here and there, I can tell you how Salesforce continues to support the very perpetrators of this attack on our democracy,” said one. staff wrote on a channel for questions ahead of a recent hand-in-hand meeting.

The employee went on to note that, after a brief hiatus after January 6, Salesforce was “one of the very few tech companies” that allowed Donald Trump to use its platform.

“I personally consider this issue (the attack on our democracy) the most important issue of our time,” the employee continued. “Everything else — all the beautiful words about Equality, Ethics and humanity using the platform, etc. — is all meaningless if we don’t act to save the very existence of our democracy. we. I wish we as employees could organize to clearly tell leadership that it is time to act. ”

Salesforce’s relationship with the RNC emerged last year after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, but very little information has emerged since. The curtain was lifted only slightly earlier this month when the RNC sued its supplier as part of a broader effort to block a subpoena from the Insurrection Investigator Selection Committee.

Decision makers at the company declined to answer employee questions about the lawsuit, according to Slack messages (the digital messaging company that Salesforce actually owns). As employees struggled to find answers at a recent hand-in-hand meeting, one director of foreign affairs repeatedly noted that this was a “client-government situation.”

“We will follow the direction of the court. That’s all we have to share at this point,” said the employee, senior director of public affairs Margaret Taylor.

But Slacks points out that even some employees in leadership positions — including at the executive level — have not caught on about Salesforce’s relationship with the RNC.

“Does anyone else have this on their bingo card?” an employee wrote March 9, a senior director of one of the three Salesforce products that RNC uses. He included a link to the Axios article breaking the news that the GOP was preparing to add Salesforce as a defendant in the case against the House board.

“How did we get caught up in this?” a senior developer asked two days later, linking to a Politico sequel.

“We supported RNC fundraising efforts?!” exclaimed the vice president of product management, also reacting to the Axios scoop.

“Oh, sometimes we should say ‘no thanks’ to transactions,” the executive commented, calling the relationship “terrible optics” and “frankly hypocritical of our values.”

Those values ​​come in part from Salesforce founder, billionaire Marc Benioff, who over the years has donated millions of dollars to Democratic causes — a practice he abandoned shortly after buying the magazine. TIME magazine in 2018.

But in an all-out call last week, top officials declined to answer general questions about the company’s divisive customers that were asked on Slack — such as, “Why do we I was sued by the RNC again?”

Those concerns remain largely internal, thanks in part to the notoriously strong loyalty among the company’s 70,000-strong workforce. (In total, more than three dozen employees declined to comment or did not respond to requests from The Daily Beast.)

Only two employees will speak and deliver internal Slack messages. One person called a recent hand-in-hand meeting — one at which Benioff was not present — “inspiring me” and declined to comment further. The other, who shared an article about the lawsuit on Slack, said he was surprised by the news but didn’t join the call.

On the official fronts, however, the company has braced its workers for a wave of criticism.

A few days after the RNC designated Salesforce as a defendant, sales managers alerted their allegation to Slack that an unspecified “pending lawsuit” could lead to a “line.” upcoming war messages and calls. The bosses laid out a few “guiding principles” in identical bullet points, noting that “we haven’t had anything like this in a while.”

“Remain calm”, the points recommended, adding “do not engage in debate or share views” during the calls.

Another bullet point reads: “Our team deserves to be treated with respect. If a potential customer/caller does not treat you with respect, inform them that you will end the call. “

The notes ask employees to “check in” with their superiors “ASAP” if they receive a call about the lawsuit, and to provide a link if the worker wants to learn more about legal action (still undetermined).

That action comes hours before Salesforce is expected to provide internal Directors with groups of RNC-related data, according to a subpoena last month. The RNC countered the request, claiming that it would suffer “direct harm” to its operations if investigators “search” for personal information, according to the lawsuit, including emails and analytics. fundraising, donor data, and login history for members of the RNC and the Trump campaign.

Salesforce initially refused to respond to the subpoena, but reversed course in the face of threats of contempt. The RNC saw its only chance to include the company as a defendant and hoped to secure a last-minute seat. The play was a success, and the committee agreed to push the subpoena deadline until after a hearing, set for April 1.

Salesforce — a vast global corporation serving some of the biggest brands in the world — contracts three products with RNC, which it uses to manage fundraising efforts. Those efforts are of interest to congressional investigators for a number of reasons, including an investigation into whether the RNC misled donors with fundraising appeals based on lies about the election. election or not. The selection committee may also identify individuals overseeing email campaigns and donor information that may allow them to match the names of targeted contributors to those of Donald Trump supporters who have entered. Capitol or help orchestrate the attack.

The House committee denied the RNC’s allegation, saying the subpoena was vital to its mission and that investigators were not interested in collecting personal or proprietary information.

And while the lawsuit may have landed in Salesforce, it’s not the first story after the uprising to have upset the company’s rankings and records.

Employees have reacted internally to a number of articles linking the company to RNC and right-wing efforts over the past year — including one about Salesforce’s contract with the alternative social media platform Parler , where fundamentalists plot political violence. Slack’s messages during that time ranged from unprovoked outrage to “business is business” agnostic that suggested that, as long as the RNC performed its contractual obligations, the company shouldn’t be cut off its relationship.

However, the company didn’t see it that way – not at first. But it quickly changed its mind.

A few days after the riot, VICE reported that Salesforce had taken certain unreported steps to stop the RNC and Trump campaign from using their platform to cause violence. In a statement, the company said it was “deeply disturbed by the terrible events of January 6,” but assessed that “there remains a risk of violence inciting politics across the country.”

The statement acknowledged RNC as a “longtime customer” and said the company had taken “actions” that have not been clarified to prevent the political committee from abusing its service “in any way that could result in violence.”

For its part, RNC said it has halted digital fundraising, including with Salesforce.

But in the three days leading up to the attack, the Trump campaign sent 19 emails, including four on the morning of January 6, Motherboard reported. And turning back the clock to Election Day, the campaign sent out 569 emails — or nearly nine per day.

Then, on January 7, the small joint fundraising committee shared between the campaign and the RNC—called “Trump Make America Great Again”—reduced Salesforce a check for $2.65 million. dollars.

However, the hiatus seems to be short-lived. It wasn’t long before Salesforce reopened for business with election opponents, including the RNC and Trump campaigns.

In March, RNC paid Salesforce $3.4 million in two installments, according to Federal Election Commission filings, the first of seven disbursements last year. TMAGA raised more than $2.65 million in October, and two national GOP organizations dedicated to re-electing Republican incumbents spent a combined $1.7 million on Salesforce services during the year. throughout 2021. About $1.5 million of that came from the group of senators, led by Senator Rick Scott (R-FL), an opponent of the election.

Salesforce also contracted another anti-election protester after the attempted coup, Senator John Kennedy (R-LA), for $30,000 over three months. And the Penn State GOP, which was involved in a failed legal effort to replace the legal pool of Democratic electors with Republican voters, paid the software giant about $9,000 over the course of two months. .

In total, Salesforce has raised more than $21.6 million from Republican committees since the riots, about $16 million of that from organizations involved in the effort to overturn the election. . It counted only two Democratic clients: Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), for a total of $25,000; and the National Democratic Training Committee, for $31,800.

By comparison, nearly 90% of Salesforce employee contributions in the 2020 election went to Democrats, but about 998 of the $1,000 the company made from political activism after the June 6 attacks. 1 is from the Republican Party.

And in February of this year, RNC upgraded its Salesforce contracts again, making a record $8 million payout on February 18.

Five days later, the company received a subpoena.

Salesforce did not respond to a request for comment. An RNC spokesperson responded to detailed written questions with a request that the conversation be unrecorded, but The Daily Beast declined, and RNC ultimately pointed us to previous statements in part. big has nothing to do with the situation at Salesforce.