John Brown, a 26-year employee of King Mill, attends a job fair at the Labor Department offices in Augusta. The agency held Thursday's event to help the 306 workers whose jobs were cut. JONATHAN ERNST/STAFF

A nurse left a message on Mrs. Spivey's answering machine notifying her the doctor and the hospital would not do the surgery unless she paid for it.

Mrs. Spivey, 60, a weaver, worked at King Mill for 351/2 years. Her husband, Willie, 62, a shipping supervisor and forklift operator, worked there 40 years. He lost his arm above the elbow in a conveyer-line accident in 1964 and was promised a job for as long as he was able to work.

Now, neither has a job, and Mrs. Spivey will have to live with the pain from a slipped disc, result of slipping on grease on a workroom floor in January.

``I think it's a sad situation, especially our insurance and our 401(k) and everything,'' she said. ``Our retirement. We don't have nothing. Everything was taken away from us.''

Although there have been assurances the 401(k) money is safe, Mrs. Spivey is skeptical.

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``They haven't given us any definite answers,'' she said. ``We don't have it in our hand.''

The Spiveys were among almost 300 former King Mill employees who went to the Georgia Department of Labor on Thursday to sign up for unemployment benefits.

In all, 306 people lost their jobs with J.P. King Manufacturing Division of Spartan International when the plant closed after operating for more than a century in Augusta.

Spartan International, the parent company based in Spartanburg, S.C., closed six mills May 4 in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, throwing 1,200 people out of work.

Spartan's assets were seized by the company's primary lender, General Electric Capital Corp.

Willie and Ada Spivey worked at King Mill for a combined total of 75 years. The couple was forced to apply for unemployment after the mill closed last week. CHRIS THELEN/STAFF

Federal law requires employers to give 60 days' notice of any layoff of 100 or more employees, but companies that go bankrupt do not have to meet that requirement, said Tyrone Carrell, of the Labor Department's rapid-response section.

Representatives of a number of state and federal agencies were present at the Labor Department office on Greene Street on Thursday to assist the jobless workers. There was also a job fair with interviews by employers with vacancies.

``We have DFCS here to explain food stamps and the PEACH program,'' said Colis Ivey, labor department unemployment supervisor. ``We have a representative here to answer questions about the 401(k) and retirement pensions. We're doing everything we possibly can help them.''

Donna Hughes, a 15-year clerical worker at King Mill, said many people can't imagine what it's like to lose a job held for years.

``People think, `Get up off your butt. Find you a job. There's no time to feel sorry for yourself,''' she said. ``They don't understand you've given 23 years of your life and 15 years of your life and all the sudden everything's just taken from you. It's gone. It's just devastating.''

Her husband, Rickie, worked at the mill for 23 years. He worked on the machinery and has many skills he can transfer to another job. Still, he said, he dreads looking for another job at age 45.

Mrs. Hughes is angry about the way the closing was handled.

``Our parent company in Spartanburg had to have known for quite a while that this was going to happen,'' she said. ``They got to where they weren't paying their bills. Suppliers were cutting us off. Utility companies were cutting us off. They had to know. I think it was criminal that they just threw all of us out on the street with no warning at all.''

Reach Sylvia Cooper at (706) 823-3228 or sylviaco@augustachronicle.com.