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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 |
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IRMA
D. HERRERA (SBN 98658) 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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SHEILA
Y. THOMAS (SBN 161403) EQUAL
RIGHTS ADVOCATES 5260
Proctor Avenue Oakland,
CA 94618 Telephone: (510) 339-3739 Facsimile: (510) 339-3723 |
DEBRA
GARDNER PUBLIC
JUSTICE CENTER 500
East Lexington Street Baltimore,
MD 21202 Telephone: (410) 625-9409 Facsimile: (410) 625-9423 |
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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 Attorneys for Plaintiffs |
SHAUNA
MARSHALL (SBN 90641) HASTINGS
COLLEGE OF THE LAW 200
McAllister Street San Francisco, CA 94102 Telephone: (415)
565-4685 Facsimile: (415) 565-4854 |
UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
I, Mary Crawford, declare:
1. I am an African-American
woman and a current employee of Wal-Mart.
I reside in South Carolina.
2. I have worked at various
Wal-Mart stores in North Carolina and South Carolina since 1988. I was told that I was ineligible for
promotion to Assistant Manager because I was unable to relocate anywhere in the
country, but I was then denied promotion to Assistant Manager in favor of a
male employee with a similar work history who did not relocate. After I finally got promoted to Assistant
Manager, I learned that I earned less than a male Assistant Manager with
similar experience. I was retaliated
against for using the Open Door Policy and forced to step down to Department
Manager. After I was promoted again to
Assistant Manager, I started to express interest in promotion to
Co-Manager. Despite positive evaluations
and open positions in my store, I have not yet been promoted. There are currently male Assistant Managers
at my store, who have less or similar experience than I have, who earn higher
salaries than I do.
3. I was hired as a Customer
Service Manager at a newly opened Wal-Mart store in York, South Carolina, in
1988. On my application, I noted that I
had received a certificate in retailing from York Technical College in 1978 and
that I had previous retail experience.
(True and correct copy attached hereto as Crawford Exhibit A.) After about a year and a half, I was promoted
to Department Manager. Starting in 1989,
I began expressing my interest in the Management Training Program. On my 1989 evaluation, I received an
above-standard rating and I wrote, “I would like some day to be a dept. manager
and later an assistant manager.” (True
and correct copy attached hereto as Crawford Exhibit B.) On my 1990 evaluation, I wrote, “I would like
to ... in the future go into the management training program.” (True and
correct copy attached hereto as Crawford Exhibit C.)
4. When I first expressed
interest in an Assistant Manager position, District Manager Millard Hare told
me that I would be required to relocate to other areas of the country. I told him that I was unable to move my
residence at that time because I did not want my seven school-age children to
have to change schools.
5. In 1991, a Resident
Assistant Manager position became available at the York store. I had never previously been informed about
the Resident Assistant Manager program, nor had I seen any written information
about the program at the store, even though my managers knew I was both
interested in management and unable to relocate. The position was not posted. I expressed my interest in the position to
District Manager Hare, who told me that he had already selected a male
employee, Clarence (Gordon) Welchel, for the position. When I asked Mr. Hare why Mr. Welchel was
getting the position instead of me, Mr. Hare told me that Mr. Welchel deserved
the position because he was the “head of his household.” Mr. Hare told me that I did not “need” the
position because I was a married woman.
6. Mr. Welchel only lasted in
the position for about a month or two, after which he was demoted to Support
Manager. After Mr. Welchel was demoted,
I again expressed my interest in the position to District Manager Hare, who
told me that the store was no longer going to have a Resident Assistant
Manager. Mr. Hare did not explain why
the position was being eliminated. I was
not given an opportunity to apply. The
elimination of the Resident Assistant Manager position from the York store made
it seem like a position that Wal-Mart would use when it suited, rather than a
formal company program.
7. I continued to express my
interest in management positions. On my
1992 evaluation, on which I received an above-standard rating and a
commendation for how well I managed the Cashiers, I wrote, “I hope that getting
the [Cashier and Customer Service areas] running right ... will help me get
into the management program.” On the
same evaluation, Assistant Manager Troy Blackman wrote, “Mary is very capable
of [illegible] management work. ... I believe she is ready for management.” (True and correct copy attached hereto as
Crawford Exhibit D.)
8. In approximately 1992, I
told our new District Manager, Richard Hinkebein, that I was seeking a
promotion to Assistant Manager. Like Mr.
Hare, Mr. Hinkebein told me I was not promotable because I could not
relocate. Mr. Hinkebein did not discuss
with me any other options and did not offer me a position as Resident Assistant
Manager. He did not explain why there was
no longer a Resident Assistant Manager position in the store.
9. Between 1991 and 1994, there
were at least four open Assistant Manager positions at the York store. I was never encouraged to apply for any of
those positions, nor were any of the positions posted. I was not told what I needed to do to become
eligible for an Assistant Manager position.
10. In 1994, I was finally
promoted to Assistant Manager at the York store, with the support of Store
Manager Leonard (Keith) Parker. The
position was not posted, and I was not interviewed for the position. I was not required to relocate. I was promoted directly to Assistant Manager
and was not given any training through the Management Training Program. After I was promoted, male Assistant Manager
Rickey Gainey told me that he earned a higher salary than I did. He had been promoted to Assistant Manager
about a year before I was, after going through the Management Training Program.
11. In approximately 1995, a
female Cashier at the York store told me that Store Manager John Locklear was
sexually harassing her. As an Assistant
Manager, I understood that I was required to take action on her complaint. I informed District Manager Michael Gillespie
of the Cashier's complaint. I did this
with some hesitation, as I had observed that District Manager Gillespie was a
personal friend of Mr. Locklear. After
another female employee also lodged a sexual harassment complaint against Mr.
Locklear, Mr. Locklear was demoted and transferred out of the York store.
12. After Mr. Locklear was
demoted, Mr. Gillespie began to harass and intimidate me on the job. It felt as though he was blaming me for Mr.
Locklear's demotion. Although I had
always received good evaluations and had no coachings as an Assistant Manager,
Mr. Gillespie began to criticize my performance and blame me for errors in
departments that were not my responsibility as Assistant Manager. I used the Open Door to discuss this with Mr.
Gillespie, and let him know that his treatment of me was unfair and
unjustified. Mr. Gillespie responded,
“What are you going to do about it?” I
took his comment to mean that he was going to continue harassing me in
retaliation for reporting Mr. Locklear's behavior, and I felt that there was,
in fact, not much I could do about Mr. Gillespie's treatment of me. I had already seen how male managers
supported one another. In the face of
Mr. Gillespie's direct threat to retaliate against me if I used the Open Door
regarding Mr. Gillespie's behavior, I decided that I would probably lose my job
if I used the Open Door again. Shortly
after this conversation, I reluctantly requested and received a demotion to
Department Manager. At the time I was
separated from my husband and raising my children on one paycheck. I could not afford to lose my job.
13. Store Manager Parker, who
had supported my original promotion to Assistant Manager, had transferred to a
Wal-Mart store in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
Mr. Parker found out that I had stepped down to a Department Manager
position at the York store, and he offered me a Support Manager position in
Rock Hill in June 1997. I accepted the
transfer and promotion. Four months
later, I was promoted back to Assistant Manager and transferred to a store in
Charlotte, North Carolina.
14. At that point, I still
intended to make a career in management at Wal-Mart. I identified my next step as promotion to
Co-Manager, and I began to express interest in that position. In my nine years at Wal-Mart, I had never
seen any written information about requirements for the job of Co-Manager, nor
had I seen information about an application process. District Manager Hinkebein had told me that I
would only be promoted to Co-Manager if I first worked as an Assistant Manager
at a Supercenter. The Charlotte store
was not a Supercenter. For that reason,
I repeatedly requested a transfer to a larger store starting in about
1997. In 1998 my request was granted,
and I transferred as Assistant Manager back to the Rock Hill, South Carolina
store.
15. On each of my annual
evaluations since 1998, I have written that my goal is to become a
Co-Manager. (True and correct copies of
1999 and 2000 evaluations attached as Crawford Exhibits E and F.) Since 1998, there have been at least four
openings for Co-Manager in the Rock Hill store.
None of those positions were posted.
Despite my positive evaluations and lack of disciplinary action, I was
not interviewed for or offered any of those Co-Manager positions. In the four years I have worked at the Rock
Hill Wal-Mart, this store has had six Co-Managers, only one of whom was a
woman.
16. In approximately 2001, I
used the “Management Career Selection” (“MCS”) computer system at Wal-Mart to
apply for an available Co-Manager position at a store in Columbia, South
Carolina. The computer system blocked my
application and reported that I was “not eligible” to apply for that position,
but it did not give any further details about how to become eligible or why I
was ineligible. After that experience,
the “MCS” system seemed useless to me and I have not used it since. I have still not seen any written information
on the requirements for promotion to Co-Manager.
17. For some time I have been
aware of Wal-Mart's Rising Star program, whereby upper-level managers identify
“highly promotable” employees who then receive priority for promotion. In 2002, Store Manager Chad Guest told me he
was going to recommend me to District Manager Bob Davis for the Rising Star
program. However, when I later reminded
Mr. Guest that we needed to complete paperwork in order to add my name to the
Rising Star program, Mr. Guest rescinded his promise. Mr. Guest told me that I was not performing
well enough to qualify for the Rising Star program, even though I have
consistently received positive evaluations.
After Mr. Guest told me he would recommend me, I looked up the
qualifications for the Rising Star program on Wal-Mart's internal computer
system. The requirements included a
certain level of evaluation rating and a certain level of sales. I know that I met the evaluation criteria,
and District Manager Davis had recently complimented my sales performance to
Co-Manager Dorsey Thomas from the York store.
As far as I know, I have yet to be nominated as a Rising Star.
18. I have learned that at least
three male Assistant Managers at the Rock Hill Wal-Mart, who have similar or
less experience than I have, earn higher salaries than I do. I have been an Assistant Manager for seven
years and my base monthly salary is about $3,200. Peter Espina has only been as Assistant
Manager for about three years and his salary is higher than mine. Ronald Glock has only been an Assistant Manager
for about one year and his salary is higher than mine. Dennis Smith, who recently transferred out of
the Rock Hill store, has only been an Assistant Manager for about three years
and his salary is higher than mine. I
have been given no explanation for these pay inequities and know of no
legitimate reason that these men should be paid more than me for doing the same
job.
19. In my 15 years at Wal-Mart,
I have received 17 evaluations, more than half of them with ratings of above
standard or exceeds expectations. I have
not received any formal discipline since 1994, when I was an hourly employee.
20. I am currently attending
classes in child care at York Technical College. I have lost hope that Wal-Mart will ever
promote me to Co-Manager, despite my qualifications and my loyalty to the
company.
21. 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 the State
of South Carolina that the foregoing is true and correct.
This
Declaration was signed by me on ______________________ (month and day), 2003,
at _______________________ (city and state).
______________________________
Mary Crawford