PROVIDENCE – The Colibri Workers for Rights and Justice, an alliance of former employees of the shuttered manufacturer, rallied today outside the offices of court-appointed receiver Allan M. Shine.

The Colibri Group Inc. – a maker of cigarette lighters, jewelry and clocks that had its headquarters in East Providence plus factories in Cranston and Smithfield – closed its doors on Jan. 14, after being petitioned into receivership by a Manhattan-based private-equity firm. (READ MORE)

Most of the company’s 250 workers reportedly received no advance notice and were paid only through the day of the closing. That, they contend, is a violation of the federal WARN Act regarding large-scale layoffs (involving 100 workers or more).

“We are here today to tell Allan Shine and Colibri attorney Tim Gallogly that we are united and that our families cannot wait 6 months to put food on the table, pay our mortgages or our rent,” the workers’ alliance said in a statement this morning. “Founders Equity, the private equity firm that is the principal investor in Colibri, has the resources and the responsibility to give us what is owed under the law, now.

“We demand what is ours under federal law: 60 days pay and 60 days benefits. We also demand a severance package that honors and respects the years many of us have worked to make Colibri Group great and to continue the long tradition of jewelry making in Providence.”

During a rally last Tuesday at the Colibri headquarters in East Providence – organized by the laid-off workers in cooperation with nonprofit advocacy groups Fuerza Laboral (Power of Workers) and Rhode Island Jobs with Justice – the groups said that Shine advised the workers that, to receive their severance pay, they would need to file individual claims and pursue a court process that was likely to take more than six months.

“In the current economic crisis it is even more critical that the law of the land be maintained,” the workers’ alliance said today. “Colibri Workers for Rights and Justice cannot tell their children, their landlords or their mortgage holders to wait six months for what is owed to them.”

But Shine, a partner in Winograd, Shine & Zacks PC, today told the protesters they had misunderstood his comments at the rally seven days ago.

Although the workers must file individual claims, Shine wrote in a letter today to Fuerza Laboral spokesman Gregory Pehrson, they need not wait six months to do so. Rather, “a claim can be filed today, tomorrow and right up until June 5. … If a claimant files a claim today and wants a hearing before the court, I suspect the court might make itself available within the next several weeks for such a hearing.”

Shine wrote that “as I advised your workers last Tuesday at your rally, I have been appointed as an independent, neutral receiver to assist the court in winding down Colibri’s operations, appropriately disposing of its assets for maximum value and making recommendations to the court with respect to the amounts and validity of claims” against the defunct manufacturer. “If and when your members file claims … I have committed to you and to them that they would promptly be reviewed.”

He also advised the workers that Gallogly no longer represents Colibri.

As receiver, Shine added, he cannot intercede directly among parties in the dispute. But he told the workers he would forward their complaints to Founders Equity, “for whatever followup they may determine appropriate.”

Fuerza Laboral (Power of Workers) is a Central Falls-based workers’ rights group. For more information, including links to video of today’s event, visit www.Fuerza-Laboral.org.

The Colibri Group Inc., a Delaware corporation with its headquarters in Providence, was a designer and maker of jewelry, lighters, timepieces and other luxury accessories. Its subsidiaries included Colibri, Daring Diamonds, Dolan Bullock, Krementz Jewelry and the Seth Thomas Clock Co. Additional information is available at www.thecolibrigroup.com.