Debbie Kline is Coordinator of Cleveland Jobs with Justice.
Unless you are a real news junkie and read the Business Section of your local newspaper or know one of the former employees, this is one story you may have missed.
InkStop was a chain of 152 convenience stores for office supplies that stocked ink cartridges and small electronics. The stores were located in small plazas in communities where big box office supply stores did not exist. InkStop owner Dirk Kettlewell boasted that the chain would be profitable by the end of this year by using over $80 million from private investors. This was supposed to be the “Sleeping Beauty” business story of the decade, but instead it turned into something that rivals “Psycho.”
The first blow came when all 152 InkStop stores were closed without warning on October 1st. It was business as usual earlier in the day. As the doors were locked for the night, the devastating news came via a faxed and emailed letter to employees to tell them: No more jobs and no pay for the last three weeks of work. This news was accompanied by a plea for patience “during this trying time.”
Even though the managers had keys to the stores, many of the security codes were changed during the dark of night. Employees could not get back in to the stores to collect personal belongings. Some still have items locked away in stores that are silent, or in stores that have been chained by landlords who have not received their rent for at least a couple of months.
The second blow came when a letter told them their health care insurance had not been paid for their last month of employment. This same letter also told them they would be ineligible for continuing health coverage under COBRA – remember they had not paid the insurance bill. This in itself was a double whammy because if the company had at least kept the health care premiums current the employees would have been able to receive continuing health coverage at the newly reduced rate.
If we are keeping track, wages, rent and health care were not seen as a priority and had not been paid. Meanwhile, Dirk Kettlewell and his wife and business partner Dawn Callahan are still living in a house worth $850,000 in an exclusive country club community and driving new cars while the employees’ credit is being wrecked and they are counting the days until their first unemployment check reaches their bank accounts.
Other than two letters outlining what the employees would not be getting, Kettlewell and Callahan and the Board have been silent. They have not communicated in any other way with the employees. No apologies. No explanations. Right, workers should “be patient.”
This was all the information Cleveland Jobs with Justice needed to jump into action. Our Mobilization Team decided to organize a protest in front of the Lakewood, Ohio store calling on Dirk Kettlewell to do the right thing and pay his employees what they are owed. Now we thought this story was bad enough but, it was about to get worse as the proverbial plot thickened…..
The third blow was delivered the morning of the protest. Another story about InkStop appeared in the business section of our local newspaper. An investor was suing Kettlewell and the board. This suit was being filed against Kettlewell et al for fraudulently withholding information because the investor gave them $250,000 right before the collapse of the company. The fact that an investor handed over $250,000 right before the stores closed begs the question: Where did the $250,000 go Mr. Kettlewell?
We know he did not pay the rent. He did not pay the health insurance premiums for his employees. And he did not make payroll. So, what happened to that money? It certainly feels as if a crime has been committed but will charges ever be filed? We probably need to be patient.
But patience is not a virtue that we have at Cleveland Jobs with Justice. In fact, this new information gave us even more fuel as we hit the streets in front of the closed store in Lakewood, Ohio. Joining us were 50 activists and the Bread and Puppet Theater, a social action performance group from Vermont who, fortunately for us, just happened to be in town and agreed to attend our protest. There had been assurances from some of the former employees that they would attend, but none of them made it. It seems some are in fear that taking action will hurt their chances of finding new employment and others really are holding on to the hope that the stores will reopen. One of them, who has been fortunate enough to find a new job and was working during the protest, describes it as the “InkStop Kool-aid.”
Cleveland Jobs with Justice will speak up and fight for those who may be too intimidated to do it for themselves. We had a lively protest with performances by Bread and Puppet; speakers included Executive Committee Members Reverend Bob Strommen and Mike Martino; Lakewood Councilwoman-at-Large Nickie Antonio; and the two attorneys who filed the class action lawsuit for wage theft, Jason Bristol and Anthony Lazzaro; and Cleveland JwJ Coordinator Debbie Kline. After the program, we marched to the front of the store with Bread and Puppet to create the “scene of the corporate crime.” We put a huge caution tape “X” on the store window, wrapped the tape around a big puppet called Uncle Fat Cat and drew 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.
It seems that everyone involved could have taken this just a little better if Dirk Kettlewell, Dawn Callahan and InkStop’s Board of Directors (one happens to be former quarterback and NFL commentator Boomer Esiason) had been honest with their employees instead of hiding what was happening with the company. If they had stepped forward and done the right thing instead of bleeding the hardworking men and women dry, to get every penny they could suck out of them until they could bleed no more. The wake of devastation is being felt in at least 550 households throughout the country. However, there is one household that seems to be doing just fine – the Kettlewell household.
Even though the employees have filed a class action lawsuit that will take years to resolve and by then who knows where Mr. Dirk Kettlewell and his accomplices will be. Justice certainly needs to be served in this case and hopefully there will come a time when someone will be saying, “Be patient Mr. Kettlewell, 3 – 5 years will go by before you know it!”
A version of this post appears on the Labor Notes blog.
