Case: 1:12-cv-O9672 Document 147-1 Filed: 08/18/15 Page 9 of 52 PageID #:1347

DECLARATION OF PAMELA SANCHEZ

1, Pamela Sanchez, under penalty of perjury, state based on personal knowledge that the
following facts are true and correct:

1. I am over the age of 21 years.

2. I currently reside in Chicago, Illinois.

3. I have been employed with Personnel Staf?ng Group, LLC d/b/a MVP 
since on or about November of 2013, just after Thanksgiving of that year, until February 9, 2015.

4. From approximately November of 201 3 to May of 2014, I was employed by MVP
as an Onsite Supervisor for MVP at Gold Standard Baking, Inc. located at 3700 S.
Keeler Ave, Chicago, Illinois. My MVP supervisor located at GSB was Janet Rostro. I was
initially assigned as a ??oater? which meant that I would work as an Onsite Supervisor on
different shifts and weekends to cover for other MVP Onsite Supervisors at GSB as needed. In
January of 2014, I was assigned as the third shift MVP Onsite Supervisor at GSB.

5. From approximately June of 2014 through February 9, 2015, I was employed by
MVP as a DiSpatcher at its Cicero Branch Of?ce located at 5637 W. Roosevelt Road, Cicero,
Illinois Cicero Branc The manager of the MVP Cicero Branch Of?ce was Lisette
Robles when I applied at and had an interview for a job with MVP in early November of 2013.
By the time I had started at MVP, Iveliz Figueroa had become the MVP Cicero Branch Of?ce
Manager until May of 2014. From May of 2014 through November of 2014, Oscar Valdez was
the Cicero Branch Of?ce Manager. Since November of 2014, Jeffrey Bobro? has been Cicero
Branch Of?ce Manager.

6. Cicero Branch was primarily responsible for supplying temporary laborers
to GSB, along with several other client companies. MVP typically assigned about 100 - 200

laborers to GSB each day.

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7. While a MVP Onsite Supervisor at GSB, part of my job was to take orders ?'om
GSB staff for temporary laborers to work at the GSB plant and then to ?ll those orders. To ?ll
orders for temporary laborers, I would work with MVP Dispatchers at the Cicero Branch
Of?ce, recruit temporary laborers directly, call temporary laborers directly and/or contact 
van drivers who generally recruited laborers in the Little Village area of Chicago and other
predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods.

8. MVP had a desk at GSB for MVP Onsite Supervisors with a phone that was
answered by MVP Onsites. The number of this phone was presented to the public as an MVP
phone number on MVP business cards and Spanish?language ?yers passed out in the Hispanic
community that said work was available to work at a Chicago bakery on Kedzie Avenue. I have
never seen a ?yer like that in English.

9. When a laborer contacted the above-mentioned phone number, if he was not
already entered into system, we would refer that laborer to the MVP Cicero
Branch Of?ce to complete an application or take the application ourselves and send it to MVP.
Since the time I worked as an Onsite Supervisor at GSB in November 2013, Onsite Supervisors
at GSB, including me, would keep a list of names of peeple who called to the MVP phone line at
GSB. I know that other Onsite Supervisors at GSB did this too because I saw the other?s
notebook and the Onsites would often share information with other Onsites.

10. Alex Salgado, the GSB Plant Manager, was the primary representative of GSB to
whom the MVP Onsite personnel, including myself, reported.

11. While I was working as a MVP Onsite Supervisors at GSB, on several occasions,
Alex Salgado told me directly not to assign African American laborers to work at GSB because
they were lazy, they were trouble makers and their job performance is poor, or words to that
effect, and that he wanted only Hispanic laborers.

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12. Other GSB staff, including Shift supervisors for each Department also told me and
other MVP Onsites at GSB that they did not want me to assign African Americans to work at
GSB and that they preferred Hispanic laborers.

13. While I was working onsite at GSB, I know that MVP rarely assigned African
Americans to work at GSB and, if so, usually only to weekend shifts to avoid paying its Hispanic
laborers overtime wages or to third shifts for shorter assignments because it was more dif?cult to
?ll orders for those shifts.

14. While I was the MVP Onsite Supervisor for third shift at GSB, on the rare
occasions when MVP did send African Americans to work on the third shift at GSB, I was told
by employees of GSB to ?Do Not Return? those African American laborers, which
meant I should terminate their assignment to GSB.

15. When an MVP Dispatcher from the Cicero Of?ce would send me a list of laborers
that she was going to send to work on the shift I supervised at GSB, I could tell who were
Hispanics and who were not Hispanics by looking at their last names. Based on the instructions I
received from GSB, con?rmed by my supervisor ?om MVP, if I saw a non-Hispanic name on a
list of laborers to be assigned to GSB, I would often advise the MVP Dispatcher not to send that
person to work at GSB and to cancel them, even after they had been assigned, because I knew
that they would be rejected.

16. While I was still working as an Onsite at GSB, in approximately January of 2014,
all of the MVP Onsites at GSB, the MVP Cicero Branch Of?ce Dispatchers and MVP van
drivers were all called to a meeting at the Cicero Branch Of?ce because Alex Salgado had sent
an email to the MVP management complaining that MVP was not ?lling the job orders at GSB
and threatening to change staf?ng agencies. Daniel Barnett, the MVP owner, and Darren
Grotollo, MVP Vice President, were present at the meeting. The purpose of the meeting was to

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discuss the dif?culty in ?lling the job orders at GSB which had become more dif?cult because
Hispanic workers were complaining about the working conditions, including the heat, the speed
of the machines, the lack of breaks and regularly not being paid for all hours worked. I and
several of the other Onsites at GSB and MVP Dispatchers were complaining that we could not
?ll orders with African Americans and that if we assigned African Americans, GSB supervisors
would tell us not to send them back and to DNR them, meaning to terminate their assignments at
GSB. Mr. Barnett and Mr. Grotollo told us that they were going to talk to Gino (last name
unlmown), the owner of GSB, and Alex Salgado, the GSB Plant Manager, about accepting
whomever MVP sent, whether they were Chinese, Polish, African Americans or whoever comes
or words to that effect. However, following that meeting, nothing changed at GSB as a result of
the meeting. GSB supervisors continued to tell the MVP Onsite Supervisors to DNR African
Americans and not to send them.

17. From the beginning of my assignment to GSB as an Onsite Supervisor, I kept a
list of laborers in a notebook who I would call to ?ll an order at GSB. I learned this practice from
other MVP Onsite Supervisors while being trained at as an Onsite Supervisor at GSB.

18. Because of the instructions from employees that they preferred Hispanic
laborers, I generally only kept the names of Hispanic laborers, based on their last names, on my
list. Based on my experience working with other MVP Onsite Supervisors at GSB, they also had
the same practice of keeping names and numbers of potential laborers to ?ll orders, but did not
generally keep the names of non-Hispanic workers in the notebooks.

19. While working as a MVP Dispatcher at Cicero Branch Office, my job was
primarily to ?ll orders for temporary laborers for several client companies of MVP, including
GSB. To ?ll these orders, I would take the following steps, among others, to recruit laborers:

a. Assign laborers to work who came into the MVP Cicero Branch Office;

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20.

b. Call laborers who had previously come into or called the MVP Cicero Branch

O?ice seeking work assignments and who had left their contact information;

. At the direction of the branch manager, pass out ?yers, written in Spanish, in

predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods of Chicago encouraging laborers to
contact my cell phone number (See, for example, the ?yer attached as Exhibit A
to this Declaration). Other MVP Dispatchers also pass out ?yers to recruit, but

always in Spanish and in Hispanic neighborhoods;

. Make requests for laborers of van drivers who regularly recruited laborers

from the Little Village area of Chicago and other predominantly Hispanic

neighborhoods; and/or

. Contact Elmwood Park Branch Office or a related staf?ng agency, MVP

Workforce, LLC (?Workforce?), to request additional laborers to ?ll the order.

During the period I worked as a Dispatcher at the MVP Cicero Branch Of?ce, I

know that laborers who walked into the of?ce in the morning would sign in on a sign-in sheet

like the one attached to this declaration as Exhibit B. The sign-in sheet would indicate the order

in which each laborer arrived and have a space for the laborer to put their contact information. At

the end of each day, we were directed to throw the sign-in sheets into the recycling bin by the

Cicero Branch Manager. No one ever instructed me or, to the best of my knowledge, any other

Dispatchers to preserve these sign-in sheets.

21.

During the period I worked as a Dispatcher at the MVP Cicero Branch Of?ce, I

learned ?om the other MVP Dispatchers while I was being trained that Dispatchers used the

following practice in dealing with new laborers seeking assignments from the MVP Cicero

Dispatch Of?ce:

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a. For African American laborers, when they asked for an application, Dispatchers,
including myself, would say ?The only way that I can give you an application is if
we have any open job orders. Otherwise, come back in the morning around 4:00
am. to see if there is work? or words to that effect. In some instances, if we
needed an extra laborer to fill an order or if we needed laborers to ?ll a more
difficult and unpopular job order, such as a job where the work was done in
freezing temperatures (a ?cold site?) or where the shifts were longer, we might
allow African Americans to ?ll out an application for possible assignment. See,
for example, the list of laborers being sent to three meat packing companies in
Chicago, all cold sites, attached hereto as Group Exhibit (with names of African
Americans laborers assigned). See also the list of laborers being sent to
Johnsburg, with 13 hour shifts, attached hereto as Exhibit (with names of
African Americans laborers assigned). We would not enter them into the
system until they were assigned, but these applications, with the
contact information, are kept in binders behind the dispatch counter at 
Cicero Branch Of?ce.

b. For Hispanic laborers, Dispatchers, including myself, would immediately give
them an application when they came in seeking an assignment and we would
generally immediately put them on a work ticket or call around to other MVP
client companies to ?nd work for them. Once they were assigned, we would put
them in the database that MVP uses. I and other MVP dispatchers
would keep notebooks with the contact information of laborers to recruit. See

excerpts from the contacts I kept in a notebook attached as Gronp Exhibit E.

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Because we knew that many of client companies only wanted Hispanic
laborers, we mostly only kept track of the names of Hispanic workers.

22. I kept the sign in sheet from October 16, 2014, attached Exhibit B, is because the
third shift Dispatchers, including myself, were told to help ?ll orders for the ?rst shift. Kevin
James, an African American, had come into the MVP Cicero Branch Of?ce on October 15, 2014
about 3 pm. while I was workingapplication, attached as Exhibit F, and I
told him to come back in the morning around 4 or 4:15 am. to work and that he could go to
either of two client companies of MVP, one of which was GSB. Each night, third shift MVP
Dispatchers, including myself, would complete a ?closing email? for the night with details of
laborers who were con?rmed for orders on the next day. In my closing email of October 15,
2014, I included the name of Kevin James and informed the ?rst shift Dispatchers where his
application was and that he was con?rmed for assignment. Later the same day, when I began
working after 2 Mr. James returned to complain that he had not been sent out to work even
though I had con?rmed him the night before. Mr. James told me that he was told to wait to see if
there was work and he waited from 4 am. to about 9 am. The merning dispatcher claimed that
Kevin James did not appear at MVP but that is not true. I kept the sign in sheet for that day
because it showed that Kevin James had, in fact, appeared at MVP that morning. I complained
to the MVP Cicero Branch Of?ce Manager, Jeffrey Bobroff, that I had con?rmed Kevin James
as I had been instructed to do, but that he had not been sent out. The Cicero Branch Manager did
not do anything about the situation and, in fact, told me that I should not con?rm A?'ican
Americans for work, but just to tell them to show up in the morning to see if work was available.

23. When any laborer ?lled out an application, Dispatchers, including myself, would
make a copy of the laborer?s photo ID. Once we put the laborer in and completed the
1-9 process, we would throw the copy of the photo ID in the recycling. No one ever told us to

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preserve these records. The Cicero MVP Branch Manager told all of the Dispatchers not to keep
a copy of the photo ID in the file because if there was ever an audit, we could get in trouble. If
we did not put the information on the application and complete I-9 process for a laborer, we
would keep copies of the photo IDs in the ?le.

24. Having a copy of the photo ID allowed me to determine the race of the laborer.
However, even if a copy of a photo ID was not in the ?le, I could tell by the laborer?s last name
whether they were Hispanic or not.

25. During the period I worked as a Dispatcher at the MVP Cicero Branch Of?ce, I
know that there were regularly between 20 to 50 African Americans who came into the of?ce
seeking work assignments for each shift but who were not assigned even when Hispanic laborers
who arrived later were assigned.

26. The MVP Cicero Branch Of?ce has a security video camera in the dispatch area. I
know that the security camera records video which can be replayed.

27. The MVP Cicero Branch Manager told the Dispatchers, including me, to have
African American applicants complete the criminal background authorization, but not the
Hispanic applicants. See, for example, the application of James Lewis, an African American,
who was required to complete the background authorization, and of Luz Hernandez and Felicia
Hernandez, Hispanics, who were not required to complete the background authorization, all
attached as Group Exhibit G. Because MVP often required me to perform work after hours and
from my home, I have these applications in my possession.

28. Until about November of 2014, all of the MVP Cicero Branch Of?ce Dispatchers
and MVP Van Drivers were Hispanic.  November of 2014, MVP hired a Polish Dispatcher.

29. I am not suffering any impediments and am competent to testify to all of the

foregoing.

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I declared under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed Dated: February 13, 2015

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Parnf'la San ez