Monthly Publication

August 2019

SPEEA Tellers oversee union elections, Council district boundaries and the auditors’ annual report. They also hear election charges. Shown here are Saher Ahmad, NW Teller, Michael Knopp, NW Teller secretary, and Steve Karich, NW and SPEEA Teller chair who just retired. Other Tellers include Lynda Maynard, SPEEA NW Teller and SPEEA Teller secretary. RG Reser, Midwest Teller chair, just retired, too.

Council officers’ bios – P4
Auditors’ Report – P5-10

ILCA LABOR MEDIA WARD WINNER

Election committee
members make a
difference

Steve Karich served in many roles for SPEEA, but nothing felt quite as rewarding as counting ballots, looking at spreadsheets, reviewing auditors’ reports and hearing election charges.

Karich, an environmental engineer, retired Aug. 1, after 30 years at Boeing. He became a Teller when former SPEEA President Cynthia Cole recruited him in 2012 to join the committee which oversees union elections.

At the time, he was serving on the Judicial Review Committee (JRC).

“It wasn’t satisfying,” he said about the JRC. “There was no real mandate – we only met if someone filed charges.”

As a Teller, he has counted ballots for contract votes, Council Rep elections and Executive Board elections, Council motions and Council votes for new and interim officer elections in addition to other Teller duties.

“I learned way more than I thought. You get to see what goes on in the union in ways you can’t foresee.”

He encourages others to join – the Tellers are operating with fewer members than needed in both the Northwest and Midwest.

“Do it if you’re interested in seeing how your union operates and functions,” he said, but added, “be prepared to read the governing documents over and over.”

Karich, who worked for Boeing Facilities, spent 30 years in aerospace. In college, he interned for two summers at Weyerhaeuser, a timber company, and had a job offer after graduating. Just before graduating, he received a letter saying the job was no longer available. He went to work at Boeing as a lab chemist, but only stayed three weeks because he took another job offer doing waste dump treatment design. “I wanted to do