BRAD SELIGMAN (SBN 083838)

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

 

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

 

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

 

NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

 

 

BETTY DUKES, PATRICIA SURGESON, CLEO PAGE, CHRISTINE KWAPNOSKI, DEBORAH GUNTER, KAREN WILLIAMSON AND EDITH ARANA, on behalf of themselves and all others similarly situated,

 

                        Plaintiff,

            vs.

WAL-MART STORES, INC.,

                        Defendant

Case No. C-01-2252 MJJ

 

DECLARATION OF JAIME LANOIS

IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION

 

 

I, Jaime Lanois, declare:

  1. I have personal knowledge of the facts contained in this declaration and, if called as a witness, am competent to testify to those facts.
  2. I am female and 25 years old.  I reside in Republic, Missouri.  I am currently a certified audiologist and licensed hearing aid dispenser for a regional health system in Springfield, Missouri and Joplin, Missouri..  I obtained a master’s degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders with an emphasis in Audiology from Southwest Missouri State University in Springfield, Missouri.
  3. I was first hired by Wal-Mart when I was 15 years old and a sophomore in high school.  This was the first job I ever held. I initially worked for the Springfield, Missouri Wal-Mart from May 1993 through August 1995, until I left for college. At this store, I held the positions of cashier, sales floor associate (experience working in every department), service desk associate, layaway associate, store closing team, Customer Service Manager, and store set-up crew member.  The periodic evaluations I was given as an employee regarding my job performance met or exceeded my job duties.
  4. In approximately May 1995, a male stock person, Rick Miller, sexually assaulted me on the job.  We were both in the back of the store outside the UPC office.  As I was reaching in the UPC office window, Mr. Miller forced his hand down the front of my shirt  and grabbed my  left breast.  I was 17 years old at the time. 
  5. I reported the incident to Store Manager, Randy Epley, who told me that he would speak to Mr. Miller. Mr. Epley later informed me that he had spoken with Mr. Miller regarding the incident, that Miller did not deny the assault, and that he had given Mr. Miller a verbal warning. 
  6. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Miller confronted me and called me a “cry baby” and a “tattletale.”  I went directly to Store Manager Epley to inform him of the remarks and to urge that Mr. Miller be given a more severe discipline since he did not seem to appreciate the gravity of his conduct.  To my knowledge, no investigation was ever conducted and no further action was taken against Mr. Miller.
  7. After attending a year of college out-of-state, I returned to the area to attend college locally and resumed working for Wal-Mart in April 1997 at a different Wal-Mart store in the Springfield area.   Several times, I asked head Customer Service Manager, Barb Carver, to promote me to the position of Customer Service Manager as the openings became available. I informed her that I had been a Customer Service Manager at the other store where I had worked.  Ms. Carver stated that she did not believe I had enough experience and that I “was too young” to have been a Customer Service Manager.  Instead, she promoted a male cashier, Tony Snavely, who was approximately the same age as myself, to a Customer Service Manager/Service Desk position who had very little experience.  Mr. Snavely had been a cashier for a shorter period of time than myself and had only held one particular position in the store as a cashier.  I complained about this promotion decision to Store Manager, Beth Runyan, and Personnel Manager, Christy Perryman and was finally promoted to Customer Service Manager/Service Desk Associate several months later, approximately in August 1997.
  8. After my promotion, Ms. Carver also promoted another male cashier, Roger [last name unknown] to the Service Desk position despite his lack of qualifications.   Roger was newly hired and had little experience as a cashier.  I am aware that several female cashiers had also applied for the position and were more qualified than Roger.             
  9. I was interested in being in upper management and was told by Store Manager Runyan that I had to work my way to the top when I learned that a Support Manager position would be opening soon.  I had planned to make Wal-Mart management my career, and even made plans to discontinue college classes upon getting the position on Support Team.  However, she did not tell me what the process was or what steps I had to take to get there, other than “working my way to the top.”
  10. In approximately March 1998, I applied for a position of Support Team Manager, which was considered a first step towards the management training program.   To my knowledge, there were two other applicants for the position beside myself: a male lawn and garden associate (Terry Hood) and a female department manager of foods (Dorothy Girard).  I had been at Wal-Mart longer than Mr. Hood and had more experience, especially supervisory experience, than he had.  At that time, I had over three years of supervisory experience as a Customer Service Manager.  The promotion was given to Terry Hood.
  11. I did observe that the promotion and job posting process was very arbitrary.  For example, sometimes job vacancies were posted and sometimes they were not.  For example, after being denied the support management position, I was placed in a cash office position that was never posted.
  12.   I resigned my employment with Wal-Mart in August 1998 in part because of my perception that the process for promotion to management was unfair.

 

  

I declare under penalty of perjury of the laws of the United States and State of Missouri that the foregoing is true and correct.

This Declaration was signed by me on ______________________, 2003, at Republic, Missouri.

 

_____________________________________

                 Jaime Lanois