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Salvation Army ARC Labor Class Action Lawsuit Overview:
- Why: The workers allege The Salvation Army exploits vulnerable individuals through its Adult Rehabilitation Center program.
- Who: Four former workers filed a class action lawsuit against The Salvation Army.
- Where: The class action lawsuit was filed in Illinois federal court.
The Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) program takes advantage of vulnerable individuals and profiting from exploitative labor by force and threats of harm, say four former workers in a new class action lawsuit.
Specifically, the lawsuit accuses The Salvation Army National Corporation and The Salvation Army, known as Central Territorial of The Salvation Army (SA Central Territory), of violating the Federal Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act. SA Central Territory oversees The Salvation Army work in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wisconsin.
The lead plaintiffs are Darrell Taylor, Kevin Lewis, Darrell Burkhart, and Leevertis Page, all of whom worked in the ARC under SA Central Territory.
Plaintiffs Allegedly ‘Threatened’ and Coerced By ARC Employees
Taylor, Lewis, Burkhart, and Page claim they were each required to work at least eight hours per day and at least 40 hours per week for food, shelter, and “gratuity” between $1 and $25 per week.
They say their food assistance EBT cards with their SNAP benefits were confiscated upon their arrival at ARC as a “condition of [their] participation” in the program. When Page left the ARC, his EBT card was returned with a $0 balance, says the Salvation Army class action lawsuit.
All four men say they were threatened during their time at ARC if they worked too slowly or failed to follow instructions, were cut off from the outside world and were forced to rely on ARC for survival.
Plaintiff Burkhart says he was also threatened with an arrest warrant unless he worked as instructed although he was sick at the time. After four or five weeks, he left the ARC “because he could not take the grueling, forced labor any longer,” and was taken to jail as this violated his probation.
The class action lawsuit seeks damages, including punitive damages, and reasonable attorneys’ costs.
ARC Operates Under ‘Work Therapy’ Guise, Class Action Says
The Salvation Army bills the ARC program as a “no-cost program [to] tackle the symptoms and causes of alcohol and drug dependence” by placing participants in “work therapy,” says the class action.
Participants in The Salvation Army’s ARC program are required to “labor long hours in physically demanding jobs” in the company’s commercial thrift stores and other business locations as part of their program requirements, according to the complaint.
ARC program participants are either referred to the program by the courts as a term of parole or probation or are walk-in participants who are “often extremely economically vulnerable,” the class action says. Justice-referred participants must abide by the program or else face violating parole or probation and being sent back to jail.
In exchange for their work, participants are given cash “gratuity” between approximately $1 and $25 per full week of work, says the Salvation Army class action lawsuit. This low amount prevents participants from saving a significant enough amount to get back on their feet, keeping them reliant on ARC, the class action argues.
Participants must also work for food and shelter from ARC, and are supposedly limited from seeking additional paid work elsewhere, says the lawsuit.
Additionally, ARC employees allegedly regularly threaten participants with removal for failure to comply with instructions; Page says he saw participants kicked out of the program “during wintery conditions and in the middle of the night.”
The class action lawsuit proposes a Nationwide Walk-In Class and a Nationwide Justice-Referred Class which cover all participants in The Salvation Army’s program, both walk-in and justice-referred, who performed labor in the ARC program within the 10 years before Nov. 15, 2021. There is also a proposed Central Territory Walk-In Class and a Central Territory Justice- Referred Class which cover individuals more specifically to The Salvation Army’s Central Territory.
The Salvation Army is not the only organization accused of forced labor practices. CoreCivic, a for-profit operator of prisons and immigration detention centers, along with US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have been accused of forcing detained immigrants to work for little to no pay.
Have you or a loved one participated in The Salvation Army’s ARC program? Tell us about it in the comments section below!
The plaintiffs are represented by David Fish and M. Nieves Bolaños of Fish Potter Bolaños, PC.
The Salvation Army ARC Labor Class Action Lawsuit is Taylor, et al. v. The Salvation Army National Corporation, et al., Case No. 1:21-cv-06105, in the US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.
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49 thoughts onThe Salvation Army ‘Forced Labor,’ Abused ARC Participants, Alleges Class Action
I was sent to the Seattle location and was in the program from Dec 2011 to Sept 2012. (9 months). I was kicked out for talking with my mentee while working in the linens dept. When I inquired about the supervisor’s clothing sorting/hanging department actively “fraternizing” as it was both men & women singing & laughing w/ each other and why they weren’t being written up he did not respond but got noticeably angrier as he wrote a two page statement on the write up, which I did not get to read. That following Wednesday at around 5pm during consequences I was told I was being kicked out right then and there. I was not from Seattle (I had come from Whatcom County) and had never been to Seattle prior to entering this rehab program. Even though I had been there 9 months we were not allowed to just leave and explore the city so I had zero idea where to go, what to do , no money, and only a small suitcase which had my cellphone and a few clothes that I originally brought with me but they ended up putting it in storage during my intake stating everybody gets clothing from their thrift store to ensure everyone is on the same level/equal and no phones allowed. I was told I would have to come back for that suitcase another day as it was to late for them to retrieve wherever it was in that moment. They allowed me to make one phone call, which thankfully I knew my Mom’s # by heart, but she lived 3hrs away and had just got to work and wouldn’t be off until 7am the following morning. All I could do was tell her to pick me up where she dropped me off and I would be waiting outside their for her. So I sat outside off the property on the sidewalk all night by myself with no money, food, and only the clothes on my back (a short sleeved collared polo style shirt, jeans, and some old wore out Etnie skater shoes because we had just gotten off work and the women’s house was way up in Shoreline) until my Mom got there around 10am the following morning 😭 I was terrified as I had come from a tiny town, never saw homeless, people randomly screaming or talking to the air and you could walk alone as a single female at night and feel safe because it’s all farmland where everyone knew everyone, so having homeless guys who I didn’t know approach me throughout the night without knowing their intentions was extremely scary.
I was in the arc program in indianapolis indiana, and all of the accusations I have read are true. Additionally, you were not even able to make phone calls for the first 30 days. And then, you could lose phone privileges as a means of punishment. These phones were pay phones that were privately owned and shared proceeds with the center as a term of the arc allowing their phone service. I also saw arc members turn over huge amounts of cash and valuables such as gold, diamonds, watches etc. that were never again seen. I was told by a paid employee, that these things cash included were handed over to the majors running the center. I’m confident these things are never accounted for. The expensive jewelry, watches, and other valuable items never show up in any of the retail stores. It is a shame that while being worked for so little compensation, these men are honest enough to turn over items that are pocketed by the administrators.
I was at the arc in Tucson until it closed down. It is nothing less than a slave camp with a religious indoctrination facility built into it. Everything named in this lawsuit is 100 percent true and there’s much more. I be would like to fold a lawsuit.
I was at the Akron ARC and yes it is definitely true about the forced labor for the first week you get 5 dollars and it goes up a dollar every week until you reach 20 and that’s all you get for 40 hrs of hard labor. I ran the Bailer machine which consists of loading 1200lbs of clothes and when it was broken I was doing just about everything that was asked of me which was way too much for me and I didn’t stay much longer after that
Please keep me posted on the current events concerning the salvation army class action lawsuit
I was in the ARC program back in 2020, and graduated,they later hired me as a truck driver, I am part of the class action suit, please keep me updated
I am married to a man that went to the salvation army rehab in Des Moines Iowa
Montez Thompson was Paid a $1.00 a day and by the time Montez finish the Salvation army classes his pay was $20.00 and that was in a ^ month and plus I would bring Montez food that I would buy for the salvation army for everyone would be able to eat and have coffee and Montez ask me to check into this because Its was wrong for them to treat the people the way they did and they are still getting by with it
I’ve been to sarah several a r c programs in florida in miami in orlando florida
I was also enrolled in the Salvation Army rehab program. I lost my home and decided on the program in lieu of becoming homeless.
Nothing is false about the salvation army Arc program its morden day slavery,I know because I was in the Baltimore Maryland and Hyattsville Maryland salvation army Arc program.
I was in the salvation army Arc during the pandemic.
There’s a few people in the Salvation Army treatment facility that’s not being treated fair
They have these people working 8 hours or more a day sometimes no lunch breaks and they only get paid 5 to 6 dollars a week on top of that they have to sign up for government assistance food stamps not cash because they will get kicked out of the program if they sign up for any cash assistance
Also if theses people are late to a meeting or church their punishment is to be sent into a red zone of the basement to work where the building looks like it will collapse or they will have them sent back to jail please help these people Salvation Army 601 Webster street oakland California 94607
Everything that is posted here is 100 percent accurate. I was in the ARC program in rockford in 2016. It was one of the most eye openening experiences of my life I am shocked it took this long for a complaint to reach the courts, and public notice. They manipulated and took advantage of me and other “beneficiaries” for free labor, confiscated my link card, brainwashed and threatened to contact my probation agent,
empty all my money on my link card then wrote false reports to have me removed from the program and put out on the streets. They exploit the individuals who they claim to help for profit based on slave labor,and all the money goes to members of the salvation army cult. Meanwhile the whole center is infested with bed bugs and they refuse to address it