|
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 CHARLES
TOMPKINS JULIE
GOLDSMITH 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 |
|
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 |
|
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, JENNIFER
FURTADO, declare:
1.
I have personal knowledge of each and every fact set
forth in this Declaration, and if called to testify as a witness in this
matter, I could and would competently testify to each of these facts.
2.
I was employed by Wal-Mart, Inc. from January 4, 1992
through March 5, 1999 at three different stores in New Hampshire and two
different stores in New Mexico. I am female.
3.
Wal-Mart was my first full-time job after graduating
from high school. Although I started out
as a cashier, I worked my way up to Department Manager, Support Manager and
then into the Management Training Program.
I was never promoted to an Assistant Manager position.
4.
During my employment with Wal-Mart, I was never
disciplined and my performance evaluations were always at least “standard” and
most often “above standard” and “outstanding.”
On four separate occasions, I received “Great Job” Awards for “exceeding
[Wal-Mart’s] expectations above and beyond.”
(Attached as Furtado Exhibit A is a true and accurate copy of my January
1999 award.)
5.
During the first six years of my employment, I was
working mostly full-time while attending university full-time as well. In May 1998, I obtained my Bachelor of Arts
degree from the University of New Hampshire.
At no time did any of the many different Store Managers I worked for
inform me about Wal-Mart’s First In Line Program. I later learned that this program allowed
junior and seniors who were Wal-Mart associates to train as Company managers as
a part of their educational program.
Upon graduation, they would be “ first in line” for an Assistant Manager
position without having to go through Wal-Mart’s internal Management Training
Program.
6.
During my first
six years at Wal-Mart, I worked at stores in Derry, Somersworth, and Portsmouth,
New Hampshire and in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I observed that both the operational and personnel policies and
practices in each of these stores were the same. In addition to these four stores, I was often
sent to other stores that were opening in New Hampshire as part of a “set up”
team to ensure that the new stores were operating consistent with Wal-Mart
policies and practices. Each store was
linked directly to corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas through
computers. The computers allowed store
management to receive daily recap reports from Bentonville that highlighted any
problems areas that needed to be addressed.
The Store Manager would review information from these reports with us
each morning.
7.
After graduation, I requested a transfer to New Mexico
where I was employed again in the same Albuquerque store and also in the Belen
store. The Belen store operated
similarly to each of the other stores I had worked in. The same personnel policies and practices
were in effect and it was linked to Bentonville through computers.
8.
During the more
than seven years I was employed by Wal-Mart, none of the jobs or promotions I
attained were posted. Instead, I got the
positions by expressing interest in them to a department or assistant manager
after learning from other employees or personal observations that someone had
quit, been fired or transferred.
Sometimes I was pre-selected for promotion without even asking. For example, I was promoted from a stocker
position to Department Manager in the Boys Department at the Derry store when
Assistant Manager Michelle [last name unknown] asked me if I wanted the job and
I accepted. I was promoted from a sales
associate position to Department Manager in the Girls Department in the
Albuquerque store when Assistant Manager Patty Hudson told me they were
splitting that department off from the Infant Department and asked me if I
wanted the job.
9.
I began to
seriously explore a management career with Wal-Mart when I spent my junior year
as an exchange student at the University of New Mexico. Although no one ever informed me about the
First In Line Program, I knew that Wal-Mart had a Management Training Program
from talking with Management Trainees who had been assigned to my stores, both
in New Hampshire and New Mexico. While I
was working in the Albuquerque store, I told Assistant Manager Patty Hudson
that I was interested in the program. I
also had several conversations with District Manager Peter Abbott about
entering the Management Training Program.
He told me that I should apply for it when I finished school. He also indicated to me that he thought I
would be able to move through the program rapidly because I had so much
experience. At the end of the school
year, District Manager Abbott had to approve my request to transfer back to New
Hampshire. On the form, he wrote, “This
associate is an outstanding person[.] [D]oes a great job. Thanks.” (Attached
hereto as Furtado Exhibit B is a true and accurate copy of the Transfer
Notice.)
10.
When I graduated from the University of New Hampshire
in May 1998, I decided to return to New Mexico to join the Management Training
Program there. I called my former Store
Manager from Albuquerque, Ken Estes, who informed me that Peter Abbott was no
longer the District Manager. However, he
offered to talk to the new District Manager, Larry Wilcockson, on my
behalf. My transfer was approved in June
1998 and several weeks after returning to the Albuquerque store that I had
originally worked in, I met with Mr. Wilcockson at his office in the Belen
store. We discussed the Management
Training Program. Shortly thereafter, in
approximately July 1998, I reported to the Belen store to begin the program.
11.
One of my
co-trainees at the Belen store was Mike Estrada. Mr. Estrada was already in the
Management Training Program when I arrived.
Mr. Estrada’s training period was very short and he was promoted to an
Assistant Manager position in the Belen store while I was still a trainee.
12.
Part of my management training included helping the
Albuquerque store where I was originally assigned move to a new building and
re-open as a Supercenter. Although
District Manager Wilcockson had told me initially that I would be responsible
for the receiving area of the new Supercenter, I ended up “setting up” the
Apparel Department while Assistant Manager Mike Maholic took over the receiving
area. By the time the new Albuquerque
Supercenter opened, I felt ready for promotion.
All I lacked was training in the Receiving Department.
13.
At the time it
opened, the Albuquerque Supercenter was still in need of one Assistant Manager
so I talked to Store Manager Estes about filling that opening after I completed
the training program. Mr. Estes, the
Set-Up Managers and the other Assistant Managers would joke with me and tell me
to take off my “trainee” badge since I was already an Assistant Manager. Finally, I asked District Manager Wilcockson
how much longer my training program would take and if he knew what store I
would be going to. Mr. Wilcockson named
several stores, including Espanola, which was a 3 to 4 hour roundtrip commute
from my home.
14.
In subsequent discussions with District Manager
Wilcockson, I tried to convince him to assign me to the Albuquerque
Supercenter. He told me that trainees
were not allowed to become Assistant Managers in the same store they trained
in. I did not believe this to be true since I was aware that my former
co-trainee, Mike Estrada, had trained and been promoted to an Assistant Manager
in the same store. Nonetheless, I told
Mr. Wilcockson that while I was willing to change stores, my circumstances had
changed, that my husband had a job in Albuquerque paying more money than I was
making, and that it did not make sense for us to relocate two hours away to
Espanola. Mr. Wilcockson was very
displeased with my unwillingness to relocate outside of the Albuquerque
area.
15.
Even though Store Manager Estes told me that he wanted
to keep me as an Assistant Manager in the Albuquerque Supercenter, he said that
the decision where I would be placed was within the control of the District
Manager. At no point in time did he or
District Manager Wilcockson inform me about Wal-Mart’s Resident Assistant
Manager program. This program allows
associates to train for management and promote to an Assistant Manager position
in the same store. Eventually, District Manager Wilcockson assigned a male,
Robert Phillips, to the open Assistant Manager position in the Albuquerque
Supercenter. Mr. Phillips, who had
recently been hired from outside the Company and who was not required to
complete the Management Training Program, was allowed to promote to an
Assistant Manager position within the same store where he was currently
working, just as Mike Estrada had been allowed to do.
16.
Over the next few months, District Manager Wilcockson
continued to be vague regarding when I would be promoted and to where. By now, I had been in management training for
approximately sixteen to eighteen weeks.
During this same time period, Wal-Mart realigned some of the Albuquerque
stores into another district headed by Peter Abbott. I asked Mr. Wilcockson to talk to Mr. Abbott,
my former District Manager, to see whether he had any stores I could be
assigned to. I was never offered an
Assistant Manager position by District Manager Wilcockson or District Manager
Abbott.
17.
Although there were at least seven other Wal-Mart
stores within a reasonable commute from my home, I was not able to determine
whether there were any Assistant Manager openings in these stores because
Wal-Mart does not post or advertise the Assistant Manager position in any
manner. Management trainees are not
allowed to “apply” for an Assistant Manager position after they complete the
program. Instead, they must wait until
the District Manager hand-selects them for placement. District Manager Wilcockson’s refusal to
allow me to relocate to another store in the Albuquerque area convinced me that
I had no future with Wal-Mart.
18.
In November
1998, after I had completed approximately twenty weeks of management training,
I finally decided to talk to District Manager Wilcockson about stepping down
from the Management Trainee Program. His
only response was to tell me that I would lose my salary and GAP [geographic
adjustment payment]. This confirmed my
understanding that he had no intention of promoting me unless I agreed to
relocate to the Espanola store. I
subsequently asked Store Manager Estes to find an hourly position for me within
his store.
19.
After I was in the Management Training Program, I was
taking graduate business courses at the University of New Mexico. One class, entitled “Organizational Behaviors
and Diversity Awareness,” required me to do a research project on the glass
ceiling phenomenon. I decided to
research whether gender balance existed in upper management at Wal-Mart. To do this, I reviewed the Company’s lists of
Store Managers for each of the forty-one states for which data was available on
the computer as well as its lists of District Managers, Regional Managers and
Regional Vice Presidents. After printing
out these lists, I counted the number of men and women on each list.
20.
When I started this project, I thought that women were
being held back at Wal-Mart by only one District Manager: Larry Wilcockson. After reviewing the data , however, I realized
that the lack of female managers at Wal-Mart was a wide-spread Company problem,
and not an isolated event. For instance,
I counted only 286 female Store Managers compared to the 1742 male Store
Managers, or 14% female. And the numbers
were significantly worse the higher up the corporate ladder I
investigated. At the Regional Manager
level, I counted only two females out of 29, or 7%. I made pie charts to demonstrate the result
of my research and gave an oral presentation to my class. (Attached hereto as Furtado Exhibit C are
true and accurate copies of some of my data, pie charts and oral presentation
for the glass ceiling project.) This
research, combined with my own experience of being unable to advance at Wal-Mart,
led me to leave the Company in March 1999.
//
//
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 _______________________.
______________________________