BANGOR — Attorneys for a union representing workers at the shuttered Verso Paper mill in Bucksport have asked a federal judge to reconsider his dismissal of a lawsuit that sought to expedite severance and vacation pay for displaced employees.

Judge John Woodcock issued an 86-page ruling on Jan. 6 in U.S. District Court in Bangor dismissing the two pay claims for the 520 millworkers whose last day on the job was Dec. 17.

The International Association of Machinists filed suit against Verso, which shut down the mill last month. The union accused the company of trying to “evade its legal obligation” under state law to make timely payments for severance, final wages and accrued 2015 vacation time.

“Plaintiffs request that, rather than this Court attempting to interpret these provisions of Maine law, and attempt to determine the intent of the Maine Legislature, based on an incomplete submission of the legislative history of amendments to [state law] (as it has evolved since 1971), this Court should reconsider its January 6, 2015, order dismissing the severance pay claims in Count 9, or vacate that order and certify all questions … to the Maine Supreme Judicial Court, sitting as the Law Court,” states the motion filed late Tuesday by Kimberly J. Erwin Tucker and associates Dana Strout and Donald Baker.

Two days before Christmas, state officials and Verso reached a deal by which the laid-off workers ended up being paid on Jan. 8 half of the severance pay they were owed. Under the deal, the remaining severance is to be paid either within five days after the sale of the mill is completed or by March 19, whichever comes first.

But the machinists union, with the vocal bipartisan support of state officials, countered that state law mandates all severance be paid within one pay period of employees’ last full day of work.

Employees worked through Dec. 17, when most completed their final shifts at the mill, but were paid regular wages through the end of December.

“While the settlement negotiated [by the State] was pragmatically preferable to the alternative of Verso leaving [more than] 520 employees to starve and freeze for a Maine winter dependent on State assistance to survive, Verso still flagrantly violated the clear mandates of Maine law by refusing to timely pay the severance payment they conceded that they owe. Instead they promised to appeal any ruling requiring them to pay in accordance with the plain meaning of the law,” the motion states.

The motion was filed the same day Woodcock refused to issue a temporary restraining order sought by the union to halt the sale of the Verso mill to Canadian scrap metal company American Iron & Metal based on possible antitrust violations.

Referring to Verso’s selling of the mill to a scrap metal dealer, Gov. Paul LePage told a Kennebec Journal reporter Wednesday morning, “I have no respect for them at all. I’ve lost all respect for bottom feeders.”

Speaking to the reporter after giving a speech to the Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce at the Senator Inn and Spa in Augusta, LePage added it “would be better” if Verso “just left our whole state, never to be seen again.”

Verso still employs about 860 people at its mill in Jay.

BDN writers Judy Harrison and Bill Trotter contributed to this report.