Judge Richard McDermott

Noted for 9:00 am January 18, 2002

 

 

SUPERIOR COURT OF WASHINGTON

COUNTY OF KING

 

LARRY E. PITTMAN and SYLVESTER        )

PITTMAN, MICHAEL PITTMAN,                )           No.  99-2-52345-8 KNT

TERRANCE A. DAVIS, KEITH KERN,        )

YOLANDA ESKRIDGE, MICHAEL             )           DECLARATION OF MICHAEL

DAVIS, GREGORY CODY, DAVID             )           PITTMAN IN OPPOSITION TO 

LISTIOWEL ABRUQUAH, ARTHUR           )           DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR 

FOREST, NATHAN A. KILCREASE,           )           SUMMARY JUDGMENT TO DISMISS

JOSEPH A. DONKOR, DARREL CODY,     )           PLAINTIFFS MICHAEL PITTMAN,

MARY COLEMAN, ERIC ARHIN,               )           SYLVESTER PITTMAN, RELASHIA

SHABAE DIQUAN, SIDNEY LANIER,        )           SEARLES AND JAMES GOODE AND

RE-LASHIA SEARLES, JAMES GOODE,    )           IN OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANT’S

CURTIS HOLLIS, and BENJAMIN               )           MOTION FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT

BARNES, individually,                                     )           TO DISMISS PLAINTIFFS ABRUQUAH,

                                                                        )           BARNES, FOREST, KILCREASE AND

                                    plaintiffs,                       )           HOLLIS

            v.                                                         )

                                                                        )

KING’S COMMAND FOODS, INC.,           )

a Washington business corporation,                   )

                                    defendant.                    )

____________________________________)

 

            I, Michael Pittman, declare:

            I am a plaintiff in this case.

            I worked at King’s Command in Kent on two separate occasions in 1997.  Each time I was employed through Interim for less than ninety days.  Each time, I was told that if I worked ninety days, I would be hired directly and paid according to the union contract.  This would have been a raise from about $6.25 per hour to the union scale of about $11.00 per hour.  As a direct employee in the union’s bargaining unit, I would have had medical insurance benefits for myself and for any dependents.  In my case, the dependents are two children for whom I am ordered to pay child support, and the insurance would have covered them.  It is also easier to pay child support when making $11.00 per hour than when making $6.25 per hour.  For myself, I was living on about $3.00 per hour with the child support withheld from my paycheck.  But each time I get close to ninety days, they let me go.

            Several times, Kirk McCoy told me that he would hire me direct.  I relied upon this statement to keep coming back to work and to perform the physical labor that came with the job.  But they would then pull the rug out from under me. While I was there I observed several other people hired directly.  I wondered why not me, I did everything they asked.

            I worked production on the floor, throwing meat on to the conveyor belt.  I worked on the bag line, throwing meat into a big bag.  I worked on the oven, thawing out meat.  I cut meat.  This is what I did during my first stint.  They let me go.  Several weeks later, they called me back in, and I worked in the laundry.  I cleaned the uniforms, and I performed janitorial services.  Janitorial services included picking up the garbage, sweeping and mopping floors, underneath the mats, vacuuming the office areas, cleaning the restrooms.  After about 80 to 85 days of this, Kirk McCoy told me that he would hire me, but instead I was let go.

            During the first stint, there was an incident involving Terry Smith.  I was working on the conveyor belt at that time.  Terry Smith walked up to me and asked me why I could not work faster.  I told him that I was born with polio in my right leg.  I was keeping up with the rest of the production line. I was not slowing it down.  But Terry said, “If you can’t work faster than this, boy, you won’t make it around here.”  A couple days later, I was let go.  Now Terry knew my name, he called me by name several times, but on this one occasion, when he elected to warn me about my job security, he, a white man, called me, a black man, “boy”.  I took it as a racist comment.

            I certify under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of Washington that the foregoing is true and correct.

            Respectfully submitted and sworn to, December 13, 2001,

 

                                                                                    _______________________________

                                                                                    Michael Pittman,           plaintiff

 

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