UFCW 3000 Members Elect Experienced Leaders Ahead of Big Contract Campaigns

Ready to take action together. Ready to win.

Last month, UFCW 3000 members elected a team of seasoned officers and rank-and-file members to our Executive Board, the governing body that leads our mission of building a powerful union that fights for economic, political, and social justice in our workplaces and in our communities.  

Members chose Faye Guenther as President, Sean Embly as Secretary-Treasurer, and Maria Milliron as Recorder. 

Members retained many current Executive Board members and added Heather Sabedra (Safeway, Yakima), Sheryl Saechao (Fred Meyer, Burien), David Reeves (Providence Holy Family, Spokane), and Tarin Knight (Seattle Children’s Hospital) to the board.  

All those elected vowed to fight for better contracts, higher wages, affordable housing, stronger enforcement, and better staffing and training.  

The labor movement is all about workers exercising our collective voice. Whether it’s in the workplace, in our governments, or in our union, worker democracy matters. By participating in regular elections for our leadership, our union sets an example for all unions and for workers across the country.  

Meet Our Leadership  

Caption: (L-R) Sean Embly, Faye Guenther, and Maria Milliron have worked side by side for more than a decade, helping build UFCW 3000 into a stronger, more militant, and more effective union. Together, they have led strikes, won contracts, helped organize new workplaces, and strengthened worker power across the region. 

Faye Guenther  
President  

Faye Guenther has been organizing workers across the Pacific Northwest since 1999. In recent years, she’s helped win hazard pay for frontline grocery workers, fought for enforceable staffing standards for health care workers, defended workplace safety protections, and led the fight to stop the Kroger-Albertsons merger to protect jobs, wages, and competition. She also helped save and strengthen our pension fund, and she founded WeTrain Washington to expand training and pathways to good union jobs. She believes strong unions are built through organizing, building a team of thousands of workplace leaders, taking bold action, and taking on corporate billionaires. 

Sean Embly  
Secretary-Treasurer  

Sean Embly began as a warehouse worker at Safeway's Auburn Distribution Center, joining UFCW Local 81 as a Shop Steward and Bargaining Team member, where he helped fight for First Day Sick Leave in Washington. Since joining our union’s staff in 2015, he has led organizing, bargaining, and political campaigns across grocery, retail, laundry, and health care sectors, including major contract fights and strikes. He has also served as a pension and health care plan trustee, protecting retirement security and expanding access to affordable health care. 

Maria Milliron 
Recorder  
 
Maria Milliron is a first-generation Filipino immigrant and has been a proud United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000 member of more than a decade. She started at the union as an office assistant and worked her way up through multiple roles, now serving as Chief Operations Officer and Special Assistant to the President. Along the way, she helped build the union’s membership systems and led major efforts like the first large-scale COVID vaccination clinics for grocery store workers in Washington. She has been a key leader behind the scenes in organizing and contract fights, helping plan strikes, mobilize members, and turn strategy into action during high-stakes campaigns. 

“This leadership team is laser-focused on building our union’s power to take on the giant corporations who want to crush us. We listen, we learn, and we inspire rank-and-file workers to step up as leaders inside and outside of our workplaces because we know that’s what we need to win.” - Clayton Bennett Safeway, Spokane 

“We know we’ve got some tough fights ahead against these big hospital systems, but we feel confident knowing we’ll have experienced leadership to prioritize what members need for safer and better-staffed hospitals.” - Patricia Brown and Gregg Barney, MultiCare Health System  

“I’ve stood alongside Faye, Sean, and Maria on more than one strike line, and I know they’ve got the skill and grit to listen and lead with integrity.” - Emily Hunter, Macy’s