Fiesta Mart in Fort Worth, Texas

Joe A. Jimenez

Fiesta Bakery Truck

      
Fiesta Mart Discrimination

On August 27, 2011, I was arrested while at work with one and a half hours left to go.  I was accused of passing the line of purchase while taking two cases of water to add to the water display outside of the store.  Earlier that day, I had been instructed to place about 30 cases of water outside on the same display case.  However, no charges were brought against me then.  I crossed the same line of purchase with 30 cases of water as seen outside the entrance of the store above with the people standing in front of the blue water display to the right.

This kind of discrimination comes from advising my store manager about Fiesta's inappropriate stocking procedures.  I had drafted a letter stating that I cannot be apart of how the stocking team performs their duties.  For example, they always stock the new product over the old.  In this situation, the old product never gets rotated.  Therefore, when the new product is gone, a customer is receiving outdated product because Fiesta failed to rotate the stock.  This procedure can cause sickness to customers if outdated product is consumed.  Most customers who shop at Fiesta Mart cannot read the English language period.

As one can see at the top picture, there is a display case of water outside the store.  No one ever instructed or trained me concerning a line of purchase.  I just finished 15 years of TDCJ-ID and was hired by Fiesta Mart because they would receive a tax credit.  Plus, I could be bonded as well.  Upon many issues with the management team at Fiesta Mart about my work schedule and my parole monitor, they persisted in attempting to write me up for leaving work.  Fiesta Mart wanted me and other workers to stay 10 to 12 hours shifts without providing an hour lunch break or the two 15 minute breaks with the 1 hour lunch breaks.  On top of that, Fiesta Mart didn't want to pay overtime either, so once an employee reached his 40 hours, they were cut until the next schedule and expected to work over 8 hours with only one thirty minute break and no pay for overtime.  

Once I told Fiesta Mart I could not pass a drug test, as they now wanted me to drive the bakery truck, as you can see in the above pictures, they changed my work schedule up from driving the truck and stocking at night, to re-stock clerk during the day.   When asked why I couldn't pass the drug test, I told them about the medication I take, which would create a false positive because of the THC in it.  Upon following full instructions from three different supervisors, I was told to put the cases of water outside on the display case.  The video clearly shows the assistant store manger walking next to me with this same cart I'm accused of stealing or exiting past the line of purchase.   Fiesta Mart never trained me about a line of purchase, so I would not have known about it, as I've been incarcerated for the past 15 years.  For 15 years I had to do as I was told and I have a very good work record in TDCJ.  Fiesta Mart seen I would do anything they told me, and by instructing me to take the water outside to the display case, gave loss prevention a means to charge me with theft, because the re-stock cart also had two damaged milk's and two damaged cereals and a few other damaged products which came to a total of $42.00.  Yet, I never loaded any product into any car. The damaged product was going back inside of store to the proper place for damaged products.  It made no sense to hand carry two cases of water when I could roll both cases inside the cart.  I had two days til total discharge from parole.  My fees were paid and I did everything my parole officer instructed me to do.  

Fiesta Mart discriminated against me, even though I told them I was on parole at the time of applying for the job.   In my interview, we even discussed the parole issue and my store manager at that time had no issue with working with me.  Yet, when management changed, this is what I went through at Fiesta Mart.  Because of my illness and the medication I take, Fiesta Mart discriminated against me.  They didn't even process the drug test, even though it was required in order to drive the bakery truck.  Fiesta Mart plotted to get rid of me and this is how they accomplished it.  Discrimination in action.