nkStop, a chain of ink cartridge and small electronics stores, closed its 152 locations nationwide on October 1—without warning. The company had set out to open in communities where big box office supply stores did not exist. But what was supposed to be the "Sleeping Beauty" business story of the decade has turned into something more like “Psycho.”

InkStop’s owner Dirk Kettlewell had predicted profits by the end of this year thanks to over $80 million from private investors. Now he and the company’s board have shut it all down, bilking those investors and leaving 550 employees without pay for their last three weeks of work.

This was all the information Cleveland Jobs with Justice needed to hit the streets. Our Mobilization Team rallied 50 activists in front of the closed Lakewood, Ohio store, including a member of Lakewood city council, local clergy, and lawyers pursuing a class action wage theft suit against InkStop.

We called on Dirk Kettlewell to do the right thing and pay his employees, and had help from the lively Bread and Puppet Theater, a social action performance group from Vermont who, fortunately for us, happened to be in town. We marched with them to the front of the store to create the “scene of the corporate crime,” putting a huge caution tape “X” on the store window, wrapping the tape around a big puppet called Uncle Fat Cat, and drawing a chalk outline with the number of jobs on the sidewalk in front of the store.

We also gathered letters from our activists demanding that the employees be paid their back wages. We will be sending these letters to Kettlewell and the board.

The day before the company went kaput, workers left stores with no indication of what they were about to lose. The devastating news was delivered by fax and email to workers: No more jobs and no pay. The company asked for patience “during this trying time.”

Other than two letters outlining what the employees would not be getting, Kettlewell his business partner and wife Dawn Callahan and the Board have been silent. They have not communicated in any other way with the employees. No apologies. No explanations.

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