Guild membership elects board secretary, approves special buyout

Guild membership unanimously elected Massarah Mikati as Executive Board secretary during the Albany Newspaper Guild’s annual membership meeting Thursday.

Massarah, who covers new Americans and the suburbs of Colonie at the Times Union, will fill the vacant board seat of secretary left earlier this year when a Guild member was promoted to an exempt, editor position.

Massarah has served as a Guild steward in recent months and led the Guild’s dialogue on diversity and inclusion. She is a member of the Guild’s Diversity Committee as well as the Company designated committee.

Guild members also approved a special buyout package that has been offered to specific employees at the Times Union. The agreement reached with the Company regarding this buyout is NOT available to all employees and does NOT represent a company request for a reduction in the workforce.

Some members have reached out to Guild leadership in recent days about applying for a buyout. While management has indicated to Guild leadership that a request for buyouts may be on the horizon, there is NO CURRENT BUYOUT PACKAGE AVAILABLE FOR ALL EMPLOYEES. Again, there is NO REQUEST FOR BLANKET BUYOUTS, at this time.

We understand you may be eager to know what the future holds at the Times Union. We are, too. Unfortunately, that picture has not been provided to us at this time. As always, we will keep you apprised of any new information as it is made available.