|
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, Sandra Stevenson, 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 a 50 year old woman who worked at Sam's Club 8184 in Gurnee,
Illinois from November 1996 until June 2000.
I currently am employed with the United States Postal Service where I
work part-time as a substitute mail carrier.
I have worked for the U.S. Postal Service since August 2001.
3.
When I joined Sam's Club I intended to stay with the company until I
retired. I thought it was a place where if I worked hard and performed well, I
would advance and succeed in the company.
I also BELIEVED I could make a difference. My experience, however, reflected a different
reality.
4.
My first assignment at Sam's Club was in the position of cashier. I worked as a cashier for approximately six
weeks and then requested to be transferred to the night shift where I worked as
a receiver in order that I could earn additional income during the day painting
and wallpapering homes. Furthermore, the night shift paid .50 more per hour.
5.
In approximately October 1997, it became apparent to me that women were
not welcome in management positions.
Most of the managers in the Gurnee store were men and it was referred to
as the "Boy's Club". I
continued to work hard in the hopes that I could somehow get past the obvious
limits on women's advancement opportunities in the store.
6.
In the Fall of 1997, management decided to fill the position of
overnight supervisor, which had been open for several months. The
job was not posted and I heard about it through word of mouth. The acting General Manager James Allen,
Grocery Team Leader Aaron Tinsley and Team Leader, Lauren Young Loderek informally
interviewed me after I verbally expressed interest in the position. I was promoted to overnight supervisor in
approximately December 1997.
7.
The overnight supervisor job gave me the opportunity to supervise 14-16
employees all over the store. I had
principal responsibility for insuring that the store was prepared for next
day's business. However, I was
repeatedly understaffed which made my job much harder. Despite repeated requests to General
Managers, Chris Poulin General Manager Todd
Christian, Merchandise Manager Chester Roberts for additional staff, many times
I worked with insufficient staff. This
made it very difficult for me to perform my job. I was particularly upset when I received a
written coaching because of the condition of the store in the mornings. I made every effort to complete all necessary
work during my shift and I was unaware of any efforts management took to
provide me with sufficient staff on the overnight crew.
8.
However, despite these challenges, I continued to hope that I had a
future with the company and did everything I could to perform the duties of my
job. In mid-to-late1998, I repeatedly
verbally expressed my interest in becoming a manager to General Manager Poulin, Merchandise Manager Roberts and Merchandise Manager
Brent Fairmen..
9.
I became more and more frustrated because not only was I not receiving
support to effectively perform my job as overnight supervisor but I was also
getting the run around about promotional opportunities.
10.
In the Spring of 1999, it was apparent to me that if I intended to be
promoted I had to transfer to the day shift and informed Acting General Manager
Orences Christian, and Merchandise Manager Jennifer Glowiak that I wanted to do so. Despite my continued efforts to be promoted,
I observed that male partners were being promoted to positions for which they
were not qualified or for which they were less qualified than I. For example, in approximately October or
November 1999, I observed as
Acting General Manager Orences Christian told
Jonathan Williams, a stocker in the freezer/cooler area that he would make a
good team leader in the produce area although Mr. Williams had no prior
experience in the department and no supervisory experience. I was very upset that Acting General Manager
Christian had not offered the position to me even though he was aware that I
wanted to transfer to the day shift and wanted a promotion and pulled him aside
to tell him so. Not surprisingly, Mr.
Williams did not stay in the position for very long and, eventually, resigned
from the store.
11.
Also, I watched as male partners such as David Jordan and Kelly Walker
were groomed for management while I was at a complete stand still despite my
supervisory experience and obvious interest in promotion. Kelly Walker was promoted to Team Leader for Hardlines in 1999 although he had only worked in the Tire
Mounting Area and had no prior experience in Hardlines. He was, eventually, selected for New Coach
Development, Sam's Club's management training program. Kelly's brother, Randy Walker whom I had
supervised when he worked overnight was promoted to the Team Leader for the
freezer/cooler section although he had no prior supervisory experience in the
area. I was not offered any of these
open positions despite my prior experience as overnight supervisor and obvious interest
in promotion.
12.
By the end of 1999, I had had it. At the end of 1999, or the beginning
of 2000, a Produce and Floral Team Leader position was available. It was not
posted and I verbally expressed interest in it to Merchandise Manager Jennifer Glowiak. I told her
that I wanted to be the next Produce Team Leader or Produce Manager, that I had
worked hard to become overnight supervisor and that when I started with Sam's
Club I had planned to retire from the company. I also informed Merchandise
Manager Glowiak during a meeting in January 2000 that
either I would be considered for the Produce Team Leader position or I was
going to leave the company. A few days
later, Merchandise Manager Glowiak called me at home
on my day off to offer me the Produce and Floral Team Leader position.
13.
After I transferred to Produce, Floral Lead in January 2000,
Merchandise Manager Glowiak informed me that that I
needed to become familiar with the department and how it ran in order to be
promoted to Produce Manager. She also told me that General Manager Todd
Christian and Fresh District Operations Manager Brian Grossi
would make the decision about whether to promote me to Produce Manager. Shortly after I transferred to produce, it
was apparent to me that management had no intention of promoting me to Produce
Manager. Whenever I asked a manager
about promotion to Produce Manager, I, again, got the runaround. Merchandise Manager Lauren Loaderek joined the management team in February 2000. She told me in the Spring of 2000 that it was
up to Fresh District Operations Manager Grossi and
General Manager Christian. General
Manager Christian said it was up to Fresh District Operations Manager Grossi and District Operations Manager Greene. Every time I
attempted to talk to a manager in the store, each would tell me that it was up
to someone else. No one seemed to be
able to give me straightforward answer.
14.
In late Spring of 2000, once again, I, repeatedly, verbally expressed
my interest in becoming promoted to the position of Produce Manager. I specifically called District Operations
Manager Greene on the telephone to exercise the Open Door Policy. However, Mr.
Greene never returned my call. I was also discouraged from using the Open Door
when Area Bakery Manager Dave Ashmore advised me not
to go over General Manager Christian’s head. I performed many of the
responsibilities of Produce Manager while I was in the position of produce and
floral lead. The department was seriously understaffed and at times I was
forced to work off the clock to complete my job duties throughout the time I
was team leader. Despite this obstacle, I was able to increase the department's
percentage of total store sales and led a company-wide contest in the sale of
oranges for a number of weeks.
15.
Despite these accomplishments, management continued not to support me
in my efforts to perform my job duties as team lead. I finally got the message that I had no
future with Sam's during Easter weekend of 2000. At the time, I had one partner in produce who
worked in the afternoons until closing, and only 3 times per week. Because of the holiday weekend, I had
ordered $12,000 of produce which meant there was a large volume of produce to
put out in the department for sale. On Good Friday, General Manager Christian fired
the only partner I had in the department after he saw him talking to another
partner on the floor before he clocked in.
Manager Christian did not discuss it with me prior to firing the partner
and made no effort to find a replacement for him. As a result, I had no one to work in the
department on the holiday weekend. I was
forced to load the produce myself and worked off the clock with management's
knowledge to get the job done. The
incident was particularly frustrating and upsetting because I had been
scheduled to attend the wake of a family member, which I was forced to miss in
order to complete loading produce.
16.
I finally had gotten the message.
My spirit was broken and on June 21, 2000, I resigned from Sam's Club.
17.
During my employment at Sam's, open positions were not posted. The only time I can recall any position being
posted were the two instances in which I posted for open positions in produce
and floral when I was team lead. In all
other instances, open positions were communicated by word of mouth.
18.
I also worked in the Evanston Sam's Club in the latter part of 1999 and
the Vernon Hills in 1999 temporarily. I
had the opportunity to observe how each one operated and observed that they
operated the same way as the Gurnee Club.
19.
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 _______________________.
______________________________
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