Displaced Colibri workers, supporters assemble outside liquidation auction

East Providence police officers arrest several protesters at the rally on Thursday morning. About 15 protesters were arrested for disorderly conduct. Times photo/Butch Adams

By VINAYA SAKSENA

EAST PROVIDENCE — Fifteen people were arrested Thursday morning during a large protest outside the Fairmount Avenue building formerly occupied by the Colibri Group. Despite the arrests, both sides reported little quarreling between police and protesters.

With the “What Cheer? Brigade” playing mock-Calypso music, more than 100 former Colibri workers and their allies staged the protest, aimed at an auction of Colibri’s assets that was scheduled for 11 a.m.
According to Attorney Allan Shine, who had been appointed as receiver for Colibri by a Superior Court judge, some 21 bidders had signed up for the private auction of Colibri inventory, which included high-end cigarette lighters, ashtrays, cufflinks, and other upscale jewelry items and accessories. Despite the presence of the protesters, Shine said that all 21 bidders had arrived at the site.
Armed with signs and megaphones, the protesters marched, danced and chanted for almost two hours while about a dozen East Providence police officers tried to maintain order and help clear a way through for vehicles trying to make it to the auction. Whenever a vehicle came down Fairmount Avenue, the protesters closed in, chanting “shame on you,” and “we’ll go away when we get our pay.”
Lesly Remy, a Colibri employee for 25 years, had harsh words for his former company. “I made everything for them. I got them rich, and they put 250 workers out in one second with nothing. That’s a shame,” he said, bitterly.
“We treated them very well,” former employee Kelly Ann Fusaro said of the workers’ relationship with Colibri. “We worked very hard for them. And what did we get for it?”
East Providence Police Lt. Richard Frazier, who was in charge of the police detail at the Colibri site, said that 15 people had been arrested on charges of disorderly conduct since officers began the detail work there earlier in the morning at Shine’s request. Those arrested included former Colibri employees and members of activist groups participating in the protest with them. The arrestees had allegedly attempted to block the passage of vehicles driving to the auction.
Both Frazier and Major Donald Dubois said that the arrests had been made without incident, with protesters cooperating once apprehended.
“It’s been calm,” Dubois said. “There’s been no violence at all. They realized what they were doing violated the law, and they were willing to be arrested.”
Fusaro said that the arrested workers would be legally assisted by an attorney pro bono. She added that advocacy groups involved in the protest would also provide money for their bail.
One of the former workers present at the protest, Mike Masi of Johnston, said he had worked with the company for 10 years as a tool measurer, a trade he had plied for 40 years. A U.S. Army veteran who had served in Vietnam, Masi said that the scene at Thursday’s protest gave him a different perspective on protests, a type of event he had been trained to control in his Army days.
“We were trained to fend off riots, demonstrations and stuff like that,” Masi said. “Now, I’m in (a demonstration), because I believe in what’s going on here.”
The Times placed a phone call to Colibri’s New York-based parent company, Founders Equity Inc., which referred the inquiry to Shine. The Times was unable to reach Shine for a follow-up interview to address questions intended for Founders Equity in time for this article.
In early February, former Colibri employees gathered for a demonstration organized by the Central Falls-based labor and immigrant advocacy group Fuerza Laboral (Power of Workers), with the expressed intent of organizing the former employees to advocate for severance pay and benefits they say were not provided to them when the company went into receivership in January. Workers who attended that rally had varying accounts of how and when they found out that their place of employment was closing, but many said they simply came to work one day and unexpectedly found the office closed. Now, the workers, along with fellow protesters from Fuerza Laboral and Rhode Island Jobs with Justice, say they are trying to secure money- 60 days pay and benefits along with severance packages- owed to the workers by the company under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act. Another large, high-profile rally on behalf of the workers was held at the Statehouse last month.
Police directed reporters interested in following the auction to a tent set up behind the building, with a flat-screen television set simulasting the auction. But while an officer said the television had been set up primarily for the use of workers, few of them came to the tent to watch the proceedings, with some saying it would be a painful and ultimately pointless exercise.
However, one former worker who said he had performed computer-aided design for the company did stand in front of the screen for some time. The employee, who asked not to be identified by name, said he had decided to watch at least part of the auction in order to see who bought what, expressing a faint hope that perhaps a person or company with a serious interest in what Colibri once did may make a significant purchase and do something with that purchase that could lead to new jobs.
As the protest wound down at the end of Fairmount Avenue, workers, many of whom said they were collecting unemployment insurance and actively seeking new jobs, enjoyed a few final moments of camaraderie with former co-workers and members of the other groups that had joined in the protest. As Daniel Bass of Ocean State Action prepared to drive off, another man momentarily stopped his vehicle next to Bass’ and heckled him good-naturedly before driving away.
“Get a job,” the man jokingly ordered him. “And let me know when you do, because I need one.”

Times staffer Donna Kenny Kirwan contributed reporting to this article.