Two years ago, 23 Latino crew members of a Seattle-based processing ship lost their jobs after refusing to accept a Bering Sea work day that swelled from 16 to 16.5 hours.

They then went to court to try to regain their jobs. But today, their fates are in limbo as a legal battle has yielded two very different rulings: one by a federal labor judge that would put the workers back on the ship and another last week by the state Circuit Court of Appeals that upholds their dismissal.

The contradictory rulings underscore the confusing tangle of laws that regulate the maritime workplace and the rights of processing workers who seek to organize to improve their work lives.

In 2003, the workers ran afoul of Premier Pacific Seafoods management as they petitioned to shorten the work day processing pollock on the Ocean Phoenix as it worked off Alaska's Aleutian Islands. Then, at a Feb. 2 meeting, they refused to return to work in the fish factory unless the work shift was trimmed to 16 hours.

Premier Pacific later claimed these actions amounted to mutiny, while the workers said they'd fought for the basic human right of a reasonable work day.

Earlier this year, a federal administrative-law judge's ruling gave the workers a big boost. Judge Lana Parke said the workers' actions constituted a legally protected work stoppage. Thus, she said they should be reinstated and paid back wages, but the ruling will not be enforced as it moves to a second layer of review by the National Labor Relations Board.

"The fishing industry is completely un-unioinized, and — if this decision holds up — it may be possible for crews on these vessels to organize to make a better work place," said Brad Bagshaw, the Seattle attorney representing the workers.

The workers also hoped for state court rulings that would affirm their claims to their old jobs. But in a ruling released last week, the state Court of Appeals reached a different conclusion. The state court backed the power of the vessel's captain to dictate the labor shifts, and said Premier Pacific was justified in discharging the crew.

"It is ancient but still valid maritime law that maritime employers have a duty to look out for the health and safety of their seamen employees," wrote Judge Susan Agid of the state Court of Appeals. "But maritime law does not allow seamen to defy orders and/or stop working."

Tough job, high risk

Most of the workers came from the Wenatchee area, where many of their families initially labored in the fields and orchards. But in the 1980s, Latino workers began to find new opportunity in expanding Bering Sea fisheries that process pollock, cod and other seafood in factory ships that work the offshore waters.

The 680-foot Ocean Phoenix is the largest Seattle-based pollock-processing ship and employs up to 220 workers who may earn from $20,000 to more than $39,000 in a six-month season. This is tough duty, involving day-and-night processing on pitching decks, and it carries the constant risk of injury.

Some of the toughest jobs were held by the men who organized the protest over the longer work day. They were "fish drivers," who stuffed tens of thousands of pollock each day into the slotted metal trays of fillet machines. Only after the workers reached the fishing ground did they learn that the 16-hour shift would be expanded by 30 minutes.

Workers complained that the extended shift robbed them of precious downtime to eat, shower and sleep and would have a serious effect on their job performances.

They drafted two protest letters. Then, at a tense Feb. 2 meeting in the ship's library, some crew members again asked for a return to the 16-hour work day, according to testimony included in the state-court and federal-labor-board filings.

Capt. Marc Smith, who attended the meeting, declined to reduce the shift and ordered the workers back to the factory. Company officials say that those who then refused that order essentially resigned from their jobs.

Legal fights continue

Since losing their Ocean Phoenix jobs, most of the workers have been unable to find other employment about the factory ships, according to Bagshaw. One man now works as a painter, several found work in a Wenatchee foundry and others have had to fall back on farm and orchard work, he said.

Bagshaw has taken the case on with the hopes of getting paid through settlements ordered by the courts. So far, he says he has devoted more than $400,000 worth of his time to the effort. Though the legal battles may drag on for several more years, Bagshaw remains hopeful that the National Labor Relations Board will affirm the decision of its administrative-law judge.

But the company has launched a vigorous challenge of the labor judge's decision, saying it hinges on the mistaken conclusion that the workers are not seamen, and thus not subject to maritime law that requires them to follow the captain's orders.

"These findings are clearly erroneous and unsupported by law," wrote David Bratz, a Seattle attorney representing Premier Pacific. "... A seamen must obey the lawful orders of the master and superior officers or risk confinement."

The legal fight also continues on a third front involving unemployment compensation.

In an initial round, a state administrative judge denied unemployment payments to the workers while they searched for other jobs. That decision was overturned on appeal to the commissioner's office of the Employment Security Department. That ruling, in turn, has been appealed by the company to state Superior Court.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com