Scientology’s arbitration contracts are ‘unconscionable,’ say trafficking victims

[Karen#1]

Excerpt:

TODAY AT SUBSTACK: If you’ve signed up for free emails at Substack, you will receive today’s feature story at your inbox: The plaintiffs behind a major new labor trafficking lawsuit have fired back at Scientology’s attempt to get their litigation derailed into the church’s brand of ‘arbitration.’ And they’ve submitted some really powerful declarations we want you to see. Go here to sign up for our daily Substack email. ~~~READ MORE

Scientology’s arbitration contracts are ‘unconscionable,’ say trafficking victims | The Underground Bunker

tonyortega.org

 

[ExScnStaff]

Some excellent counter-points, and I love that Exhibit #4 is Mike's detailed records.

 

[Karen#1]

Excerpt from today's blog


These are powerful declarations about what it is like to be a Scientology slave, working around the clock for little or no pay, with your passport locked up, and with no obvious way to escape. In their motions to compel arbitration, Scientology had produced numerous agreements that the plaintiffs had signed while they were in the Sea Org, but in their declarations, Valeska and the Baxters want the court to understand what the circumstances were when they were asked to sign those documents. They were not given time to read them, or they were told not to look through them, or they didn’t understand them, and they were being abused or disciplined when they were asked to sign. It’s compelling stuff. Here are some excerpts from each.

Scientology’s arbitration contracts are ‘unconscionable,’ say trafficking victims | The Underground Bunker

tonyortega.org

 

[Karen#1]

Exhibit #1 Laura Baxter:


Exhibit 1 from Plaintiff Laura

Laura Baxter: Eventually, despite feeling that leaving the ship would be dangerous and nearly impossible, I knew that I could no longer take the life on the ship of forced hard labor and arbitrary punishment. I discussed it with Gawain, who was by that time my husband, and we came up with a plan. Sea Org members were not allowed to have children, and normally women who became pregnant were forced to have abortions. But Gawain had learned that this forced abortion policy was drawing negative attention to Scientology that the organization hoped to avoid. We decided that if I became pregnant in advance of David Miscavige’s next visit to the Freewinds, senior officers would want us to leave the ship rather than forcing me to have an abortion against my will. Despite being afraid of the very real possibilities that I would be forced to have an abortion against my will or kicked off the ship and left with no money to support me or my baby, I decided to get pregnant. As we expected, when I became pregnant, senior officers began pressuring us to terminate the pregnancy. We refused and were forced to undergo long interrogations and psychological punishment in the form of “security checks” and “ethics handlings.” During these interrogations, I was berated over and over for getting pregnant and was pressured to have an abortion. In addition to these interrogations, we were isolated from other staff on the ship and put under full-time surveillance by ship security.