The Best and the Worst about Wal-Mart

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Christine wrote:

White Discrimination - Walmart

Mr.Michael Duke, Mr.David Glass, Mr.John Walton, Mr.S.Walton, Mr.Lee Scott Jr., Mrs.Linda M. Dillman, Ms.M.Michele Burns,

I am writing on behalf of my fellow employees and myself.

My Walmart has been discriminating against white workers. Several employees and myself have been the victims of discrimination, reverse racial discrimination and subject to a poison work enviroment.

I reported this to Walmart Ethics, my District Manager Joe McQueen, my Store Manager Willie Cheeks, our Co-Manager Tina, one of our Assistant Managers (Allen) and several employee's both black and white. I said I wanted it documented and I wanted to know the outcome.

Here is what was said by my Assistant Manager Sondra. White women are so stupid. They are fools. They are so foolish. When you see the court tv shows it's always a black woman divorcing a black man and it's a white woman up in the middle of it. The only reason a black man wants a white woman is because they buy them everything. Black women won't do it. They won't put up with it. (Very discriminating)

Assistant Manager Sondra said that to Assistant Manager Joanne while I was sitting in the Ad Office waiting to give one of my associates (Cheryl) her yearly eval.

Another time: Co-Manager Tina mistakenly called Assistant Manager Sondra by another persons name at an evening store meeting. Co-Manager Tina had called her Barbra.

Barbra is another one of our Assistant Managers and she is white.

Assistant Manager Sondra grabbed her jacket and gave it a tug. Then she turned around so her back would be facing Co-Manager Tina. She then proceeded to say "I am not white. I don't want to be white. What do I have to do to make people see that?" One of my associates (Christopher Mckinely) was standing beside me when Assistant Manager Sondra said this.(discrimination)

Another time: We were standing at the paint counter. Annette from the electronics department was talking about the news and something stupid that happened. AssistantManager Sondra said "They must of been white." (discrimination)

Another time: Co-Manager Tamia was promoted to a Store Manager. Several of the employee's decided to throw her a party in the Personal Office. At the party Assistant Manager Sondra asked everyone to applaud for the new Store Manager because she is black and she made it. (discrimination)

Both Robin who does our comp shopping and Justine the department manager of toys told me this, at different times, not knowing either one had told me before.

(Note: can you imagine someone asking you to clap at a store store meeting because you are white!)

Another time: Our Store Manager Willie went to meet a lady at AppleBee's Restaurant. The lady was going to be a new CSM at our store. Assistant Manager Sondra said "I bet she's white and I bet she's cute." (discrimination)

Alice the department manager of ladieswear told me Assistant Manager Sondra said that to her. Assistant Manager Sondra was her Assistant at the time.

A few days after I had reported the discrimination I was called into the Co-Managers office. Store Manager Willie and Co-Manager Tina were there. Store Manager Willie asked me if I knew what a "Red Book" was. I did not. He told me it was a red book.

Now I know this is a log book where discrimination complaints are documented and then filed.

Store Manager Willie then asked me if I knew why I was in the office. I said "I imagine it is because of what Assistant Manager Sondra said and I reported it."

It was if I were in court. Store Manager Willie did the questioning and Co-Manager Tina had to write down word for word what I was saying. The questions were about who said what, when it was said, where it was said, what actions did they make, were there any witnesses, how I felt about it, etc.

I must make note that I started telling Store Manager Willie about an incident that happened which I had heard about. He asked me if I was there. I said no. Then he said I couldn't use that.

But after I checked into the paperwork I found out that I was aloud to use that information and managment would need to check into what was said. And I could also add any new information to the case that I wanted, within a certain amount of time.

Then I was handed the same list of questions and I had write down my own answers.

When I was finished Store Manager Willie asked me to initial a list of statments.....which I initialed without reading because I trusted him, but now I see that I wasn't suppose to initial the paper until the investigation was complete.

When I finished writing my answers Willie said he would get back to me if it was founded. Then he corrected himself and said he would get back to me either way, whether it was founded or not. He thanked me for my information.

After the investigation:

Store Manager Willie called me in his office. Assistant Manager Donna was present as well.

The outcome told to me by Store Manager Willie: We do not feel the comments were racially motivated. We do not think what she said was appropriate for the workplace but it wasn't racial and as far as he was concerned the case was closed. (reverse racial discrimination)

I told him it was racial. It is discrimination and Assistant Manager Sondra is creating a "poison work enviroment" by going around saying racial things to different people and in the store meetings as well....and since she is saying these kinds of things in front of me I can imagine what she was saying behind my back.

He actually said he would of taken it as a compliment about what Assistant Manager Sondra said!

I will never understand that one, but anyway...

I told him I could call the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Human Rights Commission and get my own lawyer as well.

I told him there are several others who have heard Assistant Manager Sondra's discriminating remarks. He asked me to name them or they could come forward. I would not name anyone because they have told me they were afraid for thier jobs. He said there is no retaliation here Christine. I said, that is what you say.

He said they could come to him, go to Joe or Lance.

I ask you....How long do you think it will be before they fire me for coming forward? Others have told me that I will be drove so hard that I will have to quit. Or they will try and get me for anything and everything, the least little thing, one way or another,because they have seen it happen to many times.

I know that Assistant Manager Sondra saying "white women are stupid" is a very discriminatory remark, even if I took out the racial slur and say women are stupid, she is still discriminating.

1) Because I am a "white" 2) Because I am a "woman" 3) Because she is labeling women "stupid." Not to mention the fact that she thinks white women are fools, foolish, breaking up black marriages and the only reason a black man would have a white women is due to monetary reasons. Out of all of the discriminatory remarks my assistant made these are the ones that upset me worst of all and the fact that she refered to white people as "stupid" on two different occassions.

I do not feel Assistant Manager Sondra should be my assistant any longer, or employed with Walmart for that matter.

I do not feel comfortable with Sondra being my assistant after I reported all the racial comments she has been making and knowing she is in the position to write me up or have me fired.

And according to the way she talks....She may not think I am capable of doing my job properly because I am a stupid white woman, who is foolish.

The white people I told are upset and can not believe the outcome of the investigation.

They were all hoping something would get solved and now they feel like there isn't a reason to go forward with thier complaints because managment is just going to do the same thing to them that they did to me. Then they are worried they will get retaliated against and loose thier jobs.

My Store Manager is black, my Assistant Manager is black, my District Manager is black and they were all involved in my complaint, yet nothing has changed.

Who do we turn to? What do we do? No one should have to find another job or be worried about thier job satus due to the fact that I reported this information.

Walmart should hold the persons accountable that are saying and doing these things. Is there someone out there that can help? Is there a NAAWP?

Note: Since I reported the discrimination.......I have been called into the Ad Office by Assistant Manager Sondra with Store Manager Willie and Assistant Manager Donna present...I knew it would be coming.

I was called in for "not scanning every out every day." (Althought I have been scanning my outs daily to the best of my ability, if I don't get every out it is due to the fact I am by myself that day or we can't find a telzon that isn't in use already.)

It is extremely hard to do when you are the only one in your department two to three days a week and we also have to cover other departments as they are not fully staffed.

I have both the Hardware department and the Paint department which includes 16 risers to work daily and items located in three different locations thruout the store.

I also have a paint counter to run. There have been several occassions that I have waited on one customer over an hour or had to mix up to tweleve gallons of paint before I could even get started scanning my outs.

Note: We are constantly coming into pallets and return baskets left by overnight workers.

So we (the day shift) are also responsible for putting that freight up along with our regular freight.......and all pallets must be off the floor by 9:00am.

I have to share a telzon with Ronnie the Automotives department manager...who is by himself during the day, even though he has an extra 32 allotted hours per week. Our Store Manager Willie will not allow him to have those hours, he gives them to the overnight people instead.

But.... they still expect Ronnie to do everything by the book, even though managment doesn't go by the book themselves.

(Now they are cutting my associates hours back, which is also uncalled for knowing I have a service counter to run.)

As far as scanning outs go: Ronnie gives me the telzon around 8:30am... give or take a few.

I scan outs for a half hour...on the days I am by myself I must stop and mix paint for the customers.

Then I must go to the store meeting, which is usually about fifteen minutes long. Then I have to take my break,which is also 15 minutes long.

When I return to my departments it is 9:30am. Then I start scanning again...and I do get stopped by customers on a regular basis.

I then have one hour to scan my entire department, print the pick list, go to the office and pick up the paper work.

Go back to the department, work the pick list which consists of all 16 risers and backroom bins. I must work my BAM Screen ( do my negatives, any not on files and need to counts) before the truck is finalized at 10:30am.

This is due to the changes Store Manager Willie has made, such as bringing in the truck unloaders at 10:00am instead of the 4:00pm shift they use to work. It is my understanding that we are the only store who does this, and I'm sure it's with good reason.

(PLEASE NOTE: We are very short handed on telzons, garvey guns and ladders. We all waste way to much time just walking around looking for the proper equipment we need in order to get our work done.)

At times we are still working on putting away overnights freight and before we are finished doing that we are called to the backroom to bring out the freight that has just came off the truck. Store Manager Willie got rid of a vast majority of night workers and overnight stockers which leaves us in a bind and it seems his bonus is the top priority.

And when the associates that are suppose to be in your department are:

Always having to help other departments that aren't fully staffed.

Covering for other associates that have called out of work.

Covering for other departments while they take thier two fifteen minute breaks and one hour lunches.

Or Managment... takes associates from our departments to unload the trucks.

OR when the home office has allotted "forecasted hours" for each department and managment takes those hours away from certain departments... and gives them to other departments, when in truth we could use them.

We are struggling to get everything done so we won't be written up, which isn't fair.

Even a 50% TRUE ZONE in the department is nearly impossible.

And because of this a lot of NEGATIVE ONHANDS are being created. This alone is throwing off the inventory, causing Walmart to spend more money then needed while creating more work for our associates.

I had asked Store Manager Willie if my assistant could help me out with the "low price always" and "rollback" bean flipping since I had just finished twenty modulars. Store Manager Willie stated that in the last district meeting they were told assistants can not do any type of physical work because they have enough on their plate already.

(Although Assistant Manager Allen, Angela, Barbra, Christine, Joanne, and Valarie are always doing physical work)

It seems as though we are setting up for failure with the amount of work demanded from us, the few number of associates we have... and the time we are allotted to get things accomplished.

Then they tell us it's the department managers fault things aren't the way they should be..

Oh yes, I forgot to mention earlier....There were at least four other department managers( that I'm aware of) that DID NOT scan thier outs the same day I was called into the Ad Office for not scanning all of mine.

The funny thing was they were not called into the office.... but I was told by Store Manager Willie if I couldn't do it I don't need to be a department manager anymore. They wouldn't single me out or retaliate would they?

NOTE: This was said by Assistant Manager Sondra on 3-21-05...after I had reported the discrimination....and the case was closed.

When I came into work that morning I was going over my SWAS report at the paint counter. Assistant Manager Sondra came up to the paint counter and then Justine (who is black) came to the paint counter also.

Assistant Manager Sondra said a man had came in and wanted paint mixed. She said Christopher (who is black) was going to mix it for him, but the man wanted Atlee (who is white) to do it for him.

Assistant Manager Sondra looked at Justine, took her hand and placed it on Justine's shoulder and said "You know what that's about."

So, once again Assistant Manager Sondra has spoken with racial discontent. Apparently she isn't worried about making any kind of racial comments still.

I would like to state that I have been working for Walmart five years come August.

We all need our jobs and I along with several other employee's love working at Walmart as long as the rules, regulations and laws are followed, but no one should be subject to such ill treatment by any employee or employer.

I am asking you to investigate any and all discriminatory practices of certain Walmart managment personnal in the Southeastern, Virginia district.

I do not believe any of the information I reported was acknowledged by Walmart Headquarters- Human Resource Department in Arkansas because if it were I would trust the problems would have been handled correctly....

By following the guidelines within the Walmarts Code of Ethics which state "Walmart does not tolerate discrimination of any kind"

and

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964:

Title VII outlaws discrimination in employment in any business on the basis of race, national origin, sex, or religion.

Title VII also prohibits retaliation against employees who oppose such unlawful discrimination.

And as amended..

The Civil Rights Act of 1991:

Which adds provisions to Title VII protections, including right to jury trial.

I am asking that you respond within 30 days being the store manager and district manager seem to be sweeping this matter under the rug or I will have no other recourse then to hire an attorney. I hope these matters are settled soon before it is taken to the next unfortunate level.

Today's date is March 30, 2005. I am sending registered letters to all persons addressed in the heading of this letter..

Sincerly, Christine L. Knowles - Hardware Department Manager #1841 Chesapeake, Virginia

(I am adding this comment today (5-06-05) so everyone will understand that the only persons I included in the discrimination case are the ones I have mentioned in this email.......don't get it twisted.)

-- September 10, 2005 01:15 PM ∞