|
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 |
|
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, Sandra Marshall, declare:
1. I am a female, former employee of Sam’s
Club. I quit after 13 years because I
believed that the male management at Sam’s Club retaliated against me when I
demanded to be paid at the same rate as a male employee.
2. I began working at the Houston, Texas
Sam’s Club in November 1984. I applied
for a cashier position, but was asked to work in the “Center Section,” which
includes Health and Beauty, Candy and Office Supplies. Within six months, I was promoted to “Team Lead”,
an hourly supervisory role, of the Center Section. In November 1985, I requested and received a
transfer to the Sam’s Club in San Antonio, Texas.
3. As an hourly employee between 1984 and
1991, I received an “exceeds expectation” or the equivalent on each and every
evaluation, and was selected as “employee of the month” at least four or five
times. I never used a single “personal”
or “sick” day, and as a result, forfeited over 140 hours of paid leave when I
was promoted to a salaried position in 1991.
4. In 1991, my supervisor Larry
Thibeaux at the San Antonio store asked
me if I was interested in joining the Management Training Program. I was required by Sam’s Club to transfer to
the Austin, Texas store in order to receive management training. After three months in Austin, I completed the
program, and was promoted to Assistant Manager.
I stayed in Austin for almost a year and a half.
5. I never refused to transfer to other
locations when requested by Sam’s Club.
I transferred, at the request of Sam’s Club, to Arlington, Texas in
April 1992. Within several months of
arriving at the Arlington store, I was asked if I would transfer to a “Pace”
store in order to assist in its conversion to a Sam’s Club. I was given a choice of three locations, and
chose to transfer to Albuquerque, New Mexico.
6. Once the Albuquerque conversion was
completed, I requested and received a transfer to Fort Worth, Texas, where I
continued my employment as a salaried Assistant Manager. At the Fort Worth store, a female employee in
the TLE department complained to me of foul language used by other male
employees. I wrote a note summarizing
the complaint and gave it to District Manager Carlton Walls. General Manager Bob Arnold told me that the
female employee would “get over it.”
Shortly after a submitted the complaint, District Manager Walls
transferred me to Grand Prairie, Texas.
7. As an Assistant Manager, I was required
to work 55 hours per week. In addition,
I spent extra hours working when necessary so that I could complete special
projects. My evaluations for the six
years that I was a salaried Assistant Manager were, like my evaluations as an
hourly employee, exemplary.
8. When my brother became terminally ill
in 1996, I wanted to reduce the number of hours that I was required to
work. I asked my General Manager, Mike
Wanzer to transfer me to a position as an hourly Assistant Manager, where I
would be required to work only 40 hours per week. He deferred me to his supervisor, Director of
Operations Craig Winstat. Mr. Winstat
told me that if I transferred, my hourly wage would be reduced to $10.00 per
hour.
9. I contested the reduction with Mr.
Winstat, and informed him that a male hourly Assistant Manager, John Johnson,
did not receive such a drastic reduction when he transferred from a salaried
position. I knew this because Mr.
Johnson and I worked together as Assistant Managers in the Fort Worth and Grand
Prairie stores, and we discussed his transfer to an hourly position. Mr. Winstat told me that Mr. Johnson was paid
more because he was better qualified than me.
To my knowledge, Mr. Winstat was new to Sam’s Club, and never worked
with Mr. Johnson. After several days of
dispute, my salary was reduced to $13.00 per hour, and I was transferred at Mr.
Winstat’s direction to the Richmond Hills, Texas Sam’s Club.
10. My General Manager in Richmond Hills was
Byron Lindemann, with whom I had worked at the Grand Prairie store. Mr. Johnson followed Mr. Lindemann to the
Richmond Hills store shortly before I received my transfer there. Assistant Manager Rick Burris, also worked
with me and Byron Lindemann at the Grand Prairie store, and transferred to
Richmond Hills after Mr. Lindemann. Mr.
Burris was a Team Lead at Grand Prairie, and I had been his immediate
supervisor. Craig Winstat was still my
Director of Operations.
11. Upon assuming an hourly position in
Richmond Hills, I was treated differently than Mr. Johnson, who was also
hourly. Mr. Lindemann was aware of the
salary reduction dispute with Mr. Winstat, and informed that me that he would
expect more from me because I was getting paid more. In contrast, Mr. Johnson was treated much
more leniently, and not required to take on as much responsibility, even though
we received comparable pay.
12. I wrote a letter complaining of
mistreatment to Regional Vice President Brad Link. Shortly after I wrote the letter to Mr. Link,
Assistant Manager Rick Burris called me into his office and informed me that I
was stocking incorrectly. He directed me to pull down fewer products in the
Candy Department. For the next week, I
stocked the candy section as instructed by Mr. Burris. About a week later, Mr. Burris called me into
his office again, and informed me that the stocking procedure, which he had
shown me, was incorrect. He told me that
I was not pulling enough product down to stock, and he gave me a written
coaching.
13. The night I received the coaching was the
last night I worked at Sam’s Club. I
found another job. I returned to Sam’s
Club about two weeks later and filled out an exit interview, where I stated
that I left for another job, even though the primary reason that I left was
because of retaliation from my male supervisors. I told this to Assistant Manager Lloyed
Lyons, who did not write it on my exit interview.
14. During my career at Sam’s Club, spanning
13 years and seven 7 stores, I did not work for any female District or Regional
Managers. I received outstanding
performance reviews until I was placed under the management of Byron Lindemann. I believe that the male managers, including
Rick Burris, Byron Lindemann, and John Johnson at my store formed a male
“clique” which excluded, and discriminated against women.
15. I contacted the EEOC and made a written
complaint for discrimination against Sam’s Club in October 1997, shortly after
I terminated my employment.
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 Texas
that the foregoing is true and correct.
This
Declaration was signed by me on ________________________, 2003, in the City of
___________________________, State of Texas.
______________________________
Sandra
Marshall
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