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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 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 |
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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
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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
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Case No. C-01-2252 MJJ DECLARATION OF VICKI
THORNTON IN SUPPORT OF PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION |
I, VICKI THORNTON, declare:
1.
I worked for Wal-Mart at the Racine, Wisconsin
Supercenter from 1998 to 2001. I am
female.
2.
I obtained a bachelor’s degree in accounting from
Parkside University in Kenosha, Wisconsin in 1982. Prior to applying for work with Wal-Mart in
1998, I worked for three years as the Store Manager at a Family Dollar
Store. I earned $27,000/year and had
seven employees reporting to me.
3.
In August, 1998, when a new Wal-Mart store was opening
in my community, I decided to look into whether there might be a career
opportunity for me there. I interviewed
with Bill Baumann, the Store Manager, and Matt McKee, an Assistant
Manager. I told them of my background in
retail, my college degree, and that I was looking for an opportunity to advance
my career. I also told them that I
preferred to be hired for a management position because I felt I had the
background and experience to succeed, and that I wanted to move up in the
company.
4.
Store Manager Baumann offered me a position as
Department Manager in Chemicals. Baumann
promised me that I could enter the manager training program within six months
of starting to work at Wal-Mart, but that I needed to start out as a Department
Manager. Assistant Manager McKee also
agreed that I should be able to enter the manager training program
promptly. With the understanding that I
would be moved into management within six months, I accepted the Department
Manager job at a starting wage of $9.00/hour.
I worked 7:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday.
5.
Despite their promises, and despite the fact that my
annual evaluations during my three years at Wal-Mart always recognized me for
exceeding expectations, I did not advance at Wal-Mart. I was never allowed to join Wal-Mart’s
management training program.
6.
I was successful as the Department Manager of the
Chemicals Department. I was rated “above standard” on my 90-day evaluation and
was given a 5% pay increase. After about
five months on the job, Store Manager Baumann asked me move to the Produce
Department. He said he thought it would
be more of a challenge for me because I had never worked in food or grocery
before. As Lead in the Produce
Department, I learned my job quickly and performed well. However, after I had been on the job for a
few weeks, I started experiencing sexual harassment from Produce Manager Donnie
Gateley. He was constantly saying things
to me like, “Can’t you wear lower cut shirts?” “You have a nice ass.” “Women are put on this earth for one
thing. My wife isn’t any good at
it. Are you?” Or he would hold up a head of lettuce and say,
“I’ve got a head for you.” This was any
every day thing. The very first day
Gateley said these things to me I complained to Store Manager Baumann, but he
did not do anything about it. The
harassment continued over the next couple of months. I complained to Baumann nine or ten
times. I also complained about it to
Assistant Manager in Grocery Jeff [Last Name Unknown]. Jeff told me to “grin and bear it.” I then complained again to Baumann, and told
him what Jeff had said to me, and Baumann just repeated that I should “grin and
bear it.” To my knowledge, there was no
investigation of my allegations of sexual harassment. It was only after I threatened to get a
lawyer and sue Wal-Mart that they agreed to move me to another department. In about April, 1999, Store Manager Baumann
moved me to Support Manager on the 3rd shift, which was the night
shift. Donnie was allowed to keep his
job. To my knowledge, he was never
disciplined or coached for his conduct. Indeed, I am not aware that anyone in
management ever even discussed it with him.
7.
I was only Support Manager for a few weeks in
1999. I could not stay in that position
either because I was subjected to sexual harassment again, this time by Ron
West, the Manager of the Meat Department.
He would ask me to come into the cooler with him because he “needed to
be satisfied.” This time, when I
complained to Store Manager Baumann and District Manager Don Breuss, they moved me to a different
department right away. However, again, I
observed that West was allowed to keep his job.
I became Department Manager in Dairy.
Despite all these problems, I continued to perform well. On my first annual evaluation, I was rated as
“exceeds expectations” and given another 5% raise. I never complained about the harassment to
anyone higher up at Wal-Mart because Baumann and the District Manager said they
would take care of it.
8.
With each
department move, I kept asking Store Manager Baumann, Co-Manager Dean DeBona,
and Assistant Managers McKee, Ed Covey and Stewart Coffee to be admitted to the
manager training program. Baumann and
DeBona always told me that there were no openings in the program. However, I observed that new management
trainees were always being assigned to our store and that male employees at the
store were admitted to the program. For
example, Zeke Radovanovic, a male Department Manager, was admitted to the
program in January 2000.
9.
I ran the Dairy Department for about a year. In the summer of 2000, I received another
“exceeds expectations” performance evaluation and another 5% raise. Nonetheless, at about the same time, Store
Manager Baumann moved me from Dairy and made me a stocker in Lawn and Garden. He left my pay alone, but he changed my title
from Department Manager to Sales Associate.
I objected to him that this was a demotion and definitely a move in the
wrong direction. Baumann told me not to
look it at that way, and that he “had other plans for me.” Store Manager Baumann then gave the Dairy
Department Manager position to Brian Frederickson. Brian had been running the Dairy Department
for the year before I took over, but stepped down because he said it s too much
pressure. Store Manager Baumann told me
that Brian had asked for the position back and that is why he had to move me.
10.
After about two months in Lawn and Garden, Store
Manager Baumann moved me to Seasonal.
There, I had Department Manager responsibilities, but my title was still
Sales Associate. Baumann told me he
would change my title back to Department Manager, but before he had a chance to
do this, he was transferred to a Wal-Mart store in Arkansas. Store Manager Heather Nutini succeeded
him. I told her that Baumann had been
planning to restore my Department Manager title. She told me she was not going to do it. She refused to give me a reason. For the next nine months, Nutini moved me
back and forth between Seasonal and cashier.
For the next year, I applied for every Department Manager position that
was posted, but I was only interviewed once.
11.
In the summer of 2001, I again received a performance
evaluation rating me as “exceeds expectations” along with another 5%
raise. When I asked Store Manager Nutini
in about June or July of 2001 whether there were any openings in the management
training program and whether I could apply, she told me there were no
openings. Just weeks later, I was told
by a male employee in our store, Brian Yust, who was Department Manager in
Frozen Foods, that he had been admitted to the program. He had been at Wal-Mart less time than I
had. He told me that he had no prior
grocery experience before coming to Wal-Mart, but wanted to get into a new
profession. He had gotten all of his
training from me and the other department managers.
12.
I never saw any postings for openings in the
management training program and I knew of no way to get admitted to the program
other than through the Store Manager. I
believe I was not admitted to the program because I am female. In all the time I was at the Racine Supercenter,
I only saw one woman admitted to the training program – Beverly Graves. All the other trainees that I observed were
male.
13.
In June 2001, I became aware of this lawsuit and
contacted the plaintiffs’ lawyers because I believed that I had been excluded
from the management training program based upon my gender. Less than two months later, on September 11,
2001 and with no prior warning whatsoever, I was paged to the office in the
middle of my shift and terminated for “gross misconduct.” Store Manager Nutini said I had “stolen
time.” She said that I had punched in
about a half hour before the start of my shift several days earlier. I was terminated on the spot. The story was completely fabricated. This was two months to the day after I had
contacted the lawyers for the sex discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart. I am very suspicious about the timing of my
termination. I had, until then, had an
excellent performance record. There was
no factual basis for the allegation against me.
14.
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
Wisconsin that the foregoing is true and correct.
This
Declaration was signed by me on ______________________, 2003, at
_______________________.
______________________________
Vicki
L. Thornton