Times Union employees & Albany Newspaper Guild take issue with Kristi Gustafson’s anti-union remarks

Someone passed this along to me anonymously right before I left work. Just got around to reading and…wow.

From The Albany Newspaper Guild’s response to Kristi Gustafson-Barlette’s anti-union comments on her Facebook:

“I find unions protect the weak, and don’t produce viable results. People don’t DESERVE raises, they earn them,” Kristi wrote in response to a reader. She went on to add: “If you believe you should earn more, and your company doesn’t give it to you, then leave — find another job.”

…

And she is dead wrong about unions, in general and the Guild specifically. Ironically, I remember when Kristi was an editorial assistant and came to me, upset because a member of management had said if she wanted to be a reporter, she should leave, get experience elsewhere and then apply to come back. I told her that two of her colleagues, Bob Gardinier and Dennis Yusko, had been told the same thing. They perserved and became reporters. I advised her to do the same. She did and succeeded.

As someone who has benefitted from being a member of the Guild and seen colleagues laid off, positions left unfilled after departures, and no raises in over five years, you’d think she’d know better.

I didn’t see the comment. I just hope, for her sake, she at least had the common sense to write that on her personal account rather than her work account.