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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 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 |
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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, Joyce Moody, declare:
1. My
name is Joyce Moody. I am female. I am over 18 years of age and competent to
testify in Court. The facts stated
herein are based on my personal knowledge, and I could and would testify to
these facts in a court of law if asked to do so.
2. I
worked for Wal-Mart for over twenty years.
I began working at a Wal-Mart store in Ripley, Mississippi in 1977. I worked there until 1978, when I left
Wal-Mart for a short time. I then began
working at the Wal-Mart in Corinth, Mississippi later that year. I remained at that store until 1984, working
in a variety of non-management positions.
3. During
the time I worked at the Corinth store, I asked for a promotion from Mr.
Boling, the Store Manager; Mr. Reeder, the successor Store Manager; and Roy
Flake, the next successor Store Manager. Mr. Reeder was willing to promote me to
Department Manager, but no further. Mr.
Flake actively discouraged me from seeking further promotions because he
believed that I should be home with my son, who had a serious medical
condition, rather than working. After my
repeated requests, Mr. Flake was willing to promote me into the position of
Office Training Supervisor.
4. In
1984, I transferred to a Store Planning Associate position. I remained in this position for six years,
until 1990. In this position, my job was
to travel from store to store and assist in training the new associates in
preparation for store grand openings.
While in this position, I traveled to literally dozens of stores in a
variety of states throughout the country, working at each store for a period of
weeks or months preparing the associates for their jobs before the store
opened.
5. While
in the Store Planning position, I used the same training format and materials
to train all Wal-Mart hourly employees regardless of their location. I referred them to the same associate
handbook, taught them the same standardized procedures and human resource
policies, and used the same training materials at all of the dozens of stores
at which I worked.
6. While
in the Store Planning position, I observed that the store opening process and
the human resources policies at the stores were communicated to the stores from
Bentonville. These policies were not
subject to change by individual managers at the store level. Indeed, it is my understanding that one
reason Wal-Mart uses specialized store planning associates that travel from
store to store to conduct training is to ensure that standardized training
takes place and that standardized policies are communicated and taught to all
associates at all stores, regardless of location.
7. In
1990, I decided to leave Store Planning because the constant travel had become
difficult. I asked my field manager if
there was an Assistant Manager job available in Mississippi where I was
from. The Field Manager spoke to the
Corinth store’s Regional Vice President, Larry Fennell, and he got me a
position as an Assistant Manager.
8. The
District Manager over me, a Bill Wolfers, treated all the women in his district
very poorly, alternately ignoring them and subjecting them to verbal
abuse. Other female managers who I
observed were treated badly by Mr.
Wolfers were Judy Mays and Ada Faye Rucks.
Mr. Wolfers was, however, quite friendly with the male managers. Mr. Wolfers, through his treatment of me,
made it abundantly clear that he did not appreciate having a female Assistant
Manager in his district. He even told me
that I should transfer to a district four to five hundred miles north of where
I was currently working if I wanted to remain an Assistant Manager. I refused, however, because I did not want to
leave the area after so long away.
9. I
informed Regional Vice President Fennell about the treatment, but he refused to
move me out of the store or take any action against Mr. Wolfers. So, in 1990, I resigned. After my resignation, four women approached
me about the possibility of filing an EEOC charge against Wal-Mart as a result
of Wolfers’ behavior, but I refused because I still thought they might have a
career with the Company and I did not want to jeopardize that for them.
10. Approximately
four and one-half months after resigning, unable to find other employment, I
applied to work for Wal-Mart’s Home Office in Bentonville, Arkansas as a
Merchandise Coordinator with the Import Division. In 1992, after less than two years in that
position, I was promoted to Merchandise
Manager, a salaried position. Approximately
one year later, I was told that they were restructuring the department and that
my position was to be eliminated.
However, my position was not eliminated and was instead given to David
Ortiz, a Buyer from the Home Office. I
was demoted to a position manning the employee hotline. A few months later, I was promoted to an
hourly position as an Assistant to the Buyer in the Shoes and Jewelry
department.
11. I
remained in that position until 1995, when I again attempted to work in the
retail stores, this time as a District Manager over the Shoes and Jewelry
departments in Mississippi. Once again,
I did not post for this position, but rather merely requested the job and it
was given to me.
12. As
a District Manager for the Shoes and Jewelry department, I had very little
authority to change or deviate from Wal-Mart’s human resources policies or
practices – which were the same for Shoes and Jewelry as they were for the rest
of Wal-Mart stores. For example, I could
not hire or fire Department Managers without the approval of the Regional
Manager. In addition, nearly all other
human resources policies, from vacation policies to promotion and demotion
policies, were dictated to me from the Home Office in Bentonville. While in the position of District Manager for
Shoes & Jewelry, I observed that most of the other Shoes and Jewelry
Managers were women, and that the salary scale for District Managers for Shoes
and Jewelry was lower than that for Store Managers, who made considerably more
than Shoes and Jewelry District Managers.
13. After
less than one year as a District Manager
of Shoes and Jewelry, I was told by my Regional Manager that in order to
keep my job I would have to move my residence to a location that was in the
center of my district. This move would
have required me to move my entire family to an area of Mississippi that I did
not feel was safe. To the best of my
knowledge, I was the only District Manager who was told that I would have to
move. As a result, rather than move, I
stepped down from the District Manager position to work as the manager of a
Tire, Lube & Express (“TLE”) department.
After I stepped down, I was replaced by a man – who was not required to
move to the center of his district.
14. After
stepping down, I began working as the TLE Manager in the Collierville,
Mississippi store. In this position, I
learned that the human resources policies and materials used in the TLE
department are largely identical to those in the Shoes and Jewelry
department. Associates in the TLE
department are provided and rely upon the same associate handbook, are subject
to the same human resources policies, and receive the same human resources
training as associates in the shoes and jewelry department.
15. During
the time I worked as the Manager for TLE, I worked for Jeff Avant. Mr. Avant routinely told me, rather than any
of the male employees whom I outranked, to clean the stockroom, and did so with
comments like “the stockroom needs a woman’s touch.” Because I found these comments offensive and
his treatment of me unfair, I requested and received a transfer to the Wal-Mart
New Albany, Mississippi.
16 Following
my transfer, my new District Manager was James Harston. Shortly after moving to Mr. Harston’s
district, he informed me that he would be laying off certain employees in my
department, and asked me to take a ride with him in his car to discuss the matter.
17. While
we were driving, he asked me about my career and whether I would ever like to
be a District Manager again. I replied
that I would like to move up but that I believed I needed to reach certain
sales numbers in order to do so. He
replied that he would help me if I would help him. This comment made me feel uncomfortable
because of the way in which it was said to me, although I admit I was not
exactly sure what he meant. Therefore, I
simply responded that all I needed was support in the business and I would be
okay. As soon as I finished my response,
without a word Mr. Harston angrily turned the car around and drove me back to
the store in silence. This confirmed to
me that the comment had been intended as an improper sexual suggestion.
18. Following
this incident, Mr. Harston began treating me much worse even than before,
singling me out for abusive tirades and mistreatment. It got so bad that I used the Open Door to
talk to Scott McCarter, who was Mr. Harston’s supervisor. I described what had happened with Mr.
Harston in the car and I described how badly Mr. Harston was treating me since
the event. Mr. McCarter replied that I
“needed to be the bigger person in the situation” and that I needed to try to
communicate better with Mr. Harston.
19. Following
this conversation, I was so upset at the lack of response that I told Mr.
McCarter that he could “have the store at the end of January.” I later tried to rescind my verbal
resignation because I needed a job,
but Wal-Mart would not let me. I never
submitted a formal resignation in writing; Wal-Mart, however, still ended my
employment in January of 2001.
I
declare under penalty of perjury of the laws of the United States and the State
of Georgia that the foregoing is true and correct.
This
Declaration was signed by me on _________________, 2003, in Calhoun, Georgia.
______________________________
Joyce
Moody