EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Hundreds of workers who were laid off from The Colibri Group protested Thursday outside an auction of the company's assets.
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About 280 employees of Colibri were laid off with no notice in January when the company shut down for good.
A court-ordered auction was held Thursday to pay banks and creditors, but not before workers and union supporters made their case in the streets.
About 200 former workers and union supporters chanted and shouted at buyers showing up for the auction.
The workers claim Colibri and its backers violated federal law by not giving the workers 60 days notice before shutting the doors.
"I'd like to see them get justice. There's a WARN Act that they'd be able to get 60 days notice or 60 days pay and their benefits for those 60 days," said Stan Israel, a labor lawyer. "This is another AIG deal. The rich get richer, and the workers get the shaft."
Police arrested more than a dozen protesters, who offered not resistance, and drove them away in police vans.
The receiver for Colibri said the workers need to take their battle into a courtroom.
"I have told the employees that they certainly are entitled to take whatever steps or actions they wish in court or out of court, as long as it's legal," said Alan Shine, Colibri's receiver.
The laid-off workers are outraged that two banks and other creditors will receive money owed them, while the workers are at the bottom of the pay-off list.
The workers said they will do whatever it takes to get what they claim is owed them. They have filed a claim in federal district court.
Colibri's creditors, two banks, are owed about $28 million.
The media was not allowed into the auction.
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