Stop working with NRA

'Unconscionable': Thousands of workers at Salesforce, San Francisco’s biggest employer, demand company stop working with NRA

Joshua Bote

Employees at Salesforce, San Francisco’s largest private employer, are urging executives to cease their working relationship with the National Rifle Association after the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead.

An open letter titled, “Ending our customer relationship with the NRA,” was sent to the tech titan's co-CEOs, Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor; CFO Amy Weaver; and CMO Sarah Franklin on Wednesday evening, according to a current Salesforce employee (who was granted anonymity in accordance with Hearst’s ethics policy). The letter, which SFGATE has viewed, was also posted on the company's internal Slack (Salesforce now owns Slack).

As of Thursday afternoon, the employee said, the letter has more than 4,000 signatories.  

“It’s not in our power to get background checks or other gun control measures passed by Congress — but we can effect change by ending our commercial relationship with our customer, the National Rifle Association,” reads the open letter, addressed to Benioff and Taylor.

The letter begins with a quote from poet Amanda Gorman, and quotes Benioff himself in a recent interview where he urged “direct action” in light of the shooting. 

The letter makes explicit how Salesforce's customer relationship management software is used within the gun-rights group. “The NRA uses Salesforce products to drive their marketing and fundraising efforts,” the letter reads. “It is unconscionable to consider their use of Marketing Cloud to capitalize on mass shootings.”

It goes on to rebuke the NRA, and alludes to past incidents in which Salesforce's software may have aided in marketing campaigns for the organization.

"Based on past history, it is likely the NRA is already upping, or preparing to up, their Marketing Cloud usage in response to this tragedy, not to prevent future tragedies from happening, but to sow fear, sell guns, and abet future atrocities."

Benioff, who co-founded Salesforce, is one of the more outspoken activist tech leaders in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area. He has supported increased taxes on tech companies to help unhoused people — despite recent reports that the company paid no federal income tax — and expressed support for LGBTQ people and abortion rights. 

There is also precedent for Salesforce to cease its relationship with the NRA. In 2019, the company stopped working with some vendors that sold semi-automatic and 3D-printed guns online, and then updated its services policy to enforce the ban. Benioff has also been repeatedly outspoken about his support for gun control.

Employees at the tech giant have also publicly spoken out against the company in recent months. More than 400 employees signed a separate open letter opposing the company's entry into the NFT market, according to a Reuters report from February.

A majority of employees expressed support on Slack for Salesforce to take action against the NRA, the employee said.

Salesforce has emphasized its internal "culture of responsible technology" in marketing materials. In its ethical use policy, it states that safety is one of its guiding principles: "We aim to protect humans from direct harm from the use of our technology." Benioff himself has called for the company to adhere to a "strong set of guiding values."

Some employees dissented, however, arguing that deciding to stop working with companies on a case-by-case basis could be a slippery slope — especially as the NRA is not unlawful in its actions.

Representatives from Salesforce did not respond to multiple requests for comment from SFGATE.