|
JOCELYN
D. LARKIN (SBN 110817) THE
IMPACT FUND 125
University Avenue Berkeley,
CA 94710 Telephone: (510)
845-3473 Facsimile: (510) 845-3654 |
JOSEPH
SELLERS CHRISTINE
WEBBER COHEN,
MILSTEIN, HAUSFELD & TOLL West
Tower – Suite 500 1100
New York Avenue Washington,
D.C. 20005-3964 Telephone: (202) 408-4600 Facsimile: (202) 408-4699 |
|
SHEILA
Y. THOMAS (SBN 161403) DEBRA
A. SMITH (SBN 147863) EQUAL
RIGHTS ADVOCATES 1663
Mission Street, Suite 250 San
Francisco, CA 94103 Telephone: (415)
621-0672 Facsimile: (415) 621-6744 |
STEPHEN
TINKLER MERIT
BENNETT TINKLER
& BENNETT 309
Johnson Street Santa
Fe, New Mexico 87501 Telephone: (505) 986-0269 Facsimile: (505) 982-6698 |
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STEVE
STEMERMAN (SBN 067690) ELIZABETH
LAWRENCE (SBN 111781) DAVIS,
COWELL & BOWE 100
Van Ness Avenue, 20th Floor San
Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415)
626-1880 Facsimile: (415)
626-2860 |
DEBRA
GARDNER PUBLIC
JUSTICE CENTER 500
East Lexington Street Baltimore,
MD 21202 Telephone: (410) 625-9409 Facsimile: (410) 625-9423 |
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SHAUNA
MARSHALL (SBN 90641) HASTINGS
COLLEGE OF THE LAW 200
McAllister Street San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415)
565-4685 Facsimile:
(415) 565-4854 Attorneys for Plaintiffs |
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
I, Geanette Bell, declare:
1. I am a 34 year African-American female
from Pontotoc, Mississippi. I believe that Wal-Mart has not given me an
opportunity to rise within the company equal to the opportunity given to its
male employees. I also feel that
Wal-Mart has given male employees more support to successfully perform their
job duties than it has given me and other female employees.
2. I work at the Wal-Mart store in Pontotoc,
Mississippi. I have worked at Wal-Mart
since October, 1989, in a variety of positions.
For the past 5 years I have been a Department Manager.
3. Throughout my career at Wal-Mart, I
have always received a “meets expectations” rating or higher on my performance
appraisals. For four out of the past six
years, I have received an “exceeds expectations” rating on my performance.
4. In 1990, I approached Jim Legge, the
Store Manager, and asked him how I could get into the Management Training
Program. He laughed. He told me that I would have to relocate to
be in the program. Then he told me that
I “wouldn’t want to be in the program,” ending the conversation. I was discouraged by his response, which
clearly indicated that he did not consider my candidacy for the program. Therefore, I did not bother him about it
again. I knew of no other way to obtain
information about management training.
There was nothing in writing available to me that explained the
program.
5. From March of 1998 to December of 2000
I was Department Manager of chemicals and paper goods. Wal-Mart did not provide me with the
full-time help necessary for the busy department. I asked Assistant Manager David LeSueur for
full-time help in the department, but my request was denied. When I transferred to the infants department
in December 2000, Adam Worthham, a male employee, took over as Department
Manager of chemicals and paper goods.
Wal-Mart scheduled a full-time associate to work in Mr. Worthham’s
department. In August 1998, Mr. Worthham
left the department and Shauna Adams, a female employee, became Department
Manager of chemical and paper goods.
Wal-Mart stopped scheduling full-time help in the department when Ms.
Adams took over the position, leaving her, like me, understaffed in the
department.
6. For more than the last two years, I
have been on Wal-Mart’s hiring committee at the Pontotoc store. Wal-Mart’s hiring committee is responsible
for screening applicants for new hourly positions. During my tenure on the hiring committee,
Personnel Manager Rena Harden sometimes has directed the committee to filter
candidates into certain positions based on their gender. Commonly, Ms. Harden has instructed me to
find women for cashier positions. Also
commonly, Ms. Harden has instructed me to find males for cart pusher and
carry-out positions.
7. In the fall of 2002, District Manager
Sammy Sappington announced at a meeting that he had asked Coy Tutor to enter
the Management Training Program. Mr.
Tutor was a Department Manager, like me.
He did not have as many years experience with Wal-Mart as I did. Additionally, I had received an “exceeds
expectations” rating on my 2001 and 2002 performance evaluations. I did not think it was fair that Mr. Tutor, a
male Department Manager, had been approached to enter the Management Training
Program instead of me, a female Department Manager with more Wal-Mart
experience.
8. I realized that I had never seen
Wal-Mart announce that a female was selected for a Management Trainee
position. I knew of other males who were
selected by Wal-Mart. In addition to
Mr. Tutor, Bill Finley was selected for the Management Training Program in
1999, at a time when he had only three years experience with Wal-Mart and no
Department Manager experience. Also, Adam
Worthham was put in the Management Training Program in 2002, after less than
two years of experience with the company.
9. In the fall 2002, after I saw this
third male, Coy Tutor, invited to the Management Training Program, I approached
Store Manager Bryan Timmons to again ask how I could get into the program. Mr. Timmons told me I would not want to enter
the program because I would not want to relocate my children. He would not give me any direction or
information regarding what I could do to be selected for Wal-Mart’s Management
Training Program.
10. In my 13 years at Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart’s
relocation policy, which was frequently mentioned in conjunction with the
Management Training Program, discouraged me at times from attempting to enter
the program. However, of the males I
recall entering the program, none of them were required to move from their
homes in order to enter the program or become Assistant Managers. For example, Billy Finley and Adam Worthham,
two males from my store who have entered the program in the past few years, were assigned to stores within
commuting distance from Pontotoc.
11. A few months after expressing my interest
in the Management Training Program was rejected by Store Manager Timmons,
Wal-Mart posted a notice about the Management Training Program. The notice invited employees to express their
interest in entering the Management Training Program. This was the first time in my 13 years at Wal-Mart
that such an invitation had been posted. According to the January 2003 announcement,
employees had about one week to apply for a Management Trainee position. Selected employees would then be interviewed.
12. I did not feel comfortable applying for
the position because, after watching Wal-Mart hand pick its candidates for the
Management Training Program for 13 years, I questioned Wal-Mart’s
sincerity. I was suspicious that
Wal-Mart’s action was solely in response to the lawsuit. I might be interested in a future opportunity
to enter the Management Training Program if I was confident that I was being
judged on merit, not by my gender.
I
have personal knowledge of each and every fact set forth in the Declaration,
and if called to testify as a witness in this matter, I could and would
competently testify to each of these facts.
I
declare under penalty of perjury of the laws of the United States and State of
__________________ that the foregoing is true and correct.
This
Declaration was signed by me on ______________________, 2003, at
_______________________.
______________________________
Geanette Bell
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