Judge William Thurmond Bishop will set a hearing on whether the employees' claims for wages and benefits should come before those of other creditors of Spartan International Inc., King Mill's parent company.

The hearing will be in the South Carolina bankruptcy court within the next four months.

Meanwhile, the judge ruled that Spartan's principal creditor, General Electric Capital Corp., temporarily will receive the money from the sale of Spartan's assets.

"We're not any better off today than we were before," the employees' attorney, Louis Saul, told his clients after the hearing.

Mr. Saul estimates at more than $8 million the total claims of all 1,200 Spartan employees who lost their jobs and benefits when the corporation turned over its keys to GE Capital on a $35 million debt in May. He suggested that GE Capital and Spartan knew months beforehand that the company would close and could have given the employees the federally mandated 60 days' notice but chose not to do so.

"The employees were still in the plant. They were still making blankets," Mr. Saul said during the hearing. "GE knows about the WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act) ... GE has no heart. These people have a heart. They have blood flowing in their veins. They have needs, and there are outstanding debts owed to these employees."

Mr. Saul said that by South Carolina law, the employees have first lien on the assets.

The $8 million estimate of employee claims could increase dramatically if some of the employees die because they can't afford the prescription medicine needed to keep them alive, Mr. Saul said.

He asked the judge to expedite the process and put the court hearing on the fast track.

Willie Spivey, who worked at King Mill for 40 years and lost a hand in a 1964 plant accident, was one of five former workers from Augusta attending Monday's hearing.

"We still ain't got no satisfaction," he said afterward.

Former employee Martha Griffin said she was disappointed the judicial system has not already ruled in the employees' favor.

"GE is a wealthy corporation that is not hurting for money, but many of the former King Mill employees are," she said. "And the longer it drags on, the greater the suffering of those former employees. In fact, it seems to me GE has already spent more on legal fees than they would have if they had paid our claims from the beginning."

More than 300 King Mill employees lost their jobs, health insurance and benefits when the plant closed without notice May 4. Federal law requires companies with 100 or more full-time employees to give them at least 60 days' notice of an impending closing.

Spartan closed five plants in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina, throwing employees out of work without the federally required notice and with no medical insurance or retirement funds.

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