|
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 |
|
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,
Katheryn Johnson, declare:
1.
I make this
statement on the basis of my personal knowledge, and, if called as a witness,
could and would testify competently to the facts herein.
2.
I am female, and
I am twenty-five years of age.
3.
I was hired at
Wal-Mart Store #723 in Troy, Alabama, on March 23, 1999. At the time, I was twenty-one years of age
and attending Troy State University in Troy, Alabama, studying for my Bachelor
of Science degree in Sports Management with a minor in Business Administration. I resigned when it became apparent that
Wal-Mart would not permit me to receive management training because I am a
woman.
4.
I was initially
hired as a part-time sales associate (hourly employee) in the Infants and
Little Girls Department of the Troy, Alabama, Wal-Mart Store, and worked until
October 13, 1999, when I had to stop working because of scheduling conflicts
with my position as a student worker (and, later, intern) with Troy State
University, and because of inefficient scheduling within the store.
5.
When my
scheduling conflicts were resolved, I was rehired at Wal-Mart Store #723 on
April 3, 2000, part-time as an hourly associate. I went full-time in January of 2001 and
ultimately resigned on April 13, 2001, because of gender discrimination by the
District Manager, James Pike.
6.
During the Fall
of 2000, the new store manager, Mr. Bobby Brackenridge, asked me if I was
interested in a course Wal-Mart had for college students who wanted to become a
Wal-Mart manager. I told him I was not
eligible because I would soon graduate.
However, several days later, I told him I was interested in applying for
the management training program. Mr.
Brackenridge told me to submit an application with a resume, which I did. He did not inform me that I first needed to
perform other jobs within the store.
7.
Also, in
approximately September of 2000, I expressed to Ms. Jina Jordan, the Store
Co-Manager who had approximately fifteen years of employment with Wal-Mart, my
interest in the Wal-Mart Assistant Manager Training Program and in working my
way up through management in Wal-Mart in order to make my employment with
Wal-Mart a career. Ms. Jordan told me
that she would support my promotion in any way she could.
8.
I had always
performed my job as an associate well and had received numerous compliments on
my job performance from management, including Mr. Brackenridge. I was never disciplined, and the two
performance evaluations I received were “exceeds expectations.”
9.
I graduated from
Troy State University in December of 2000, and in approximately February of
2001, submitted an application for promotion to the Assistant Manager Training
Program, with a cover letter and a resume, and Mr. Brackenridge and Ms.
Jennifer Keil, the assistant manager who was my supervisor, gave me good
references.
10.
Assistant Manager
Trainee positions were never posted at the store. When I asked Mr. Brackenridge about openings,
he indicated that there were openings for Assistant Manager Trainee in three
nearby stores but that the District Manager, Mr. James Pike, was “in charge of
who goes.”
11.
Approximately two
weeks after I had submitted my application to Mr. Brackenridge, I approached
Mr. Brackenridge and asked him if he had given Mr. Pike my application. He replied, “No”, and when I asked him why
not, he said that Mr. Pike was coming to the store that week and that he would
give my application to him at that time.
12.
When Mr. Pike
came into the store the following week, I encountered him in the store
personnel office with Mr. Brackenridge and held out my hand to shake his hand,
saying, “Hello, my name is Katheryn Johnson.
I have applied for the Wal-Mart training program. Have you received my application?” Mr. Pike saw me extend my hand but did not
shake it. He only said, “Oh, it [my
application] is in a file over there somewhere.
Bobby [Brackenridge] has it for me, don’t you, Bobby?”
13.
For the next six
weeks, I heard absolutely nothing from Mr. Pike. During that time, I spoke with Mr.
Brackenridge and told him that I was going to quit because there had been no
response to my application, and I felt that there was no reason for me to stay
with Wal-Mart. I had student loans that
I needed to pay, and I needed to find a job where I could start a career and
make enough money to support myself and my family. Mr. Brackenridge urged me not to quit and
told me that “they [Wal-Mart]” needed Assistant Managers in the Enterprise,
Alabama, store and that the Supercenter in Montgomery, Alabama, also needed
Assistant Managers.
14.
When Mr. Pike
finally came into the store on March 16, 2001, I approached him in the
manager’s office and asked him if he had an opportunity to look over my
application. He responded by saying,
“Naw, Shug, I sure haven’t.” I then
said, “When do you think you’ll have an opportunity to look it over?” He replied, “I need one month; give me one
month.” I then said, “One month is all
I’m going to give.” Mr. Brackenridge was
present in the room during this conversation, and when Mr. Pike asked me to
give him another month, instead of speaking up and urging Mr. Pike to consider
my application, Mr. Brackenridge only nodded his head at me to indicate that I
should agree with Mr. Pike’s request for an extension. It was obvious to me that Mr. Brackenridge,
who had verbally supported my application, was not willing to actually do
anything to support my application.
15.
That same day, I
met with Ms. Jordan and told her my concerns about being denied the opportunity
to become an assistant manager trainee.
I told her that I had heard that Mr. Pike didn’t hire women, and Ms.
Jordan told me, “Just between you and I, some people tend to think he [James
Pike] doesn’t like to put women into the training program; I believe that, as
well.” When I asked her what I should
do, she told me, “Give him [Mr. Pike] a month, and then if you leave, I will
understand.”
16.
Twenty-seven days
passed with no word from Mr. Pike, and he again appeared in the store on April
13, 2001. I approached him and said to
him, “I’d like to speak with you before you leave,” so I could find out if I
was going to be accepted into the management training program. He nodded, “Yes”, indicating that he would
speak with me before he left the store.
However, Mr. Pike left the store that day without making any attempt
whatsoever to speak with me.
17.
I then wrote a
letter of resignation and gave it to Ms. Nancy Hussey, the Assistant to the
Personnel Manager, and turned in my badge and smock.
18.
I later dialed
1-800-WAL-MART, the telephone number that we had been told to use if we were
having problems at the store. I spoke to
a young woman in the Ethics Department and related everything that had happened
in detail. She indicated to me, “We’ll
be getting back to you in three days.”
19.
Three days
passed, and I heard nothing from Wal-Mart.
I again dialed 1-800-WAL-MART and spoke with a different young woman in
the Ethics Department who indicated that she would have someone get in touch
with me. At the end of April or the
beginning of May, 2001, I finally received a call from the Regional Personnel
Manager, Mr. Larry Ezell. I related to
him all of the details of what had happened.
He told me that I probably didn’t get the job because I wouldn’t
relocate out-of-state. I told him that
Mr. Brackenridge had told me I didn’t have to relocate out-of-state until I
completed my training. He concluded the
conversation by telling me, “If you don’t have any hard feelings toward the
company, then you can reapply when you’re available to move.”
20.
At the time I
resigned my employment with Wal-Mart, I was making $5.70 per hour after two
years of employment as a sales associate.
If I would have become an Assistant Manager, I would have started with a
salary of approximately $31,000.00 per year plus bonuses based upon the store’s
net profit. Instead, because of the
gender discrimination directed toward me, I was unable to find a job until June
5, 2001, and then working as an administrative assistant for O.S.I. Outsourcing
Solutions, Inc., in Montgomery, Alabama, earning only $9.50 per hour, or
approximately $19,500.00 per year.
21.
I subsequently
filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC in Montgomery, Alabama, alleging
gender discrimination by Wal-Mart.
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 Alabama, that the foregoing is true and correct.
This Declaration was signed by me on April __, 2003,
at Hartselle, Alabama.
______________________________
Katheryn
Johnson