[Federal Register: May 18, 2001 (Volume 66, Number 97)]
[Notices]               
[Page 27694]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr18my01-67]                         

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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

[TA-W-38,396]

 
Philips Electronics North American Corporation, Philips Display 
Components Company Ottawa, OH; Notice of Negative Determination 
Regarding Application for Reconsideration

    By application of February 23, 2001, the International Brotherhood 
of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 1654, requests administrative 
reconsideration of the Department's negative determination regarding 
eligibility for workers and former workers of the subject firm to apply 
for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA). The denial notice was signed on 
January 24, 2001, and was published in the Federal Register on February 
20, 2001 (66 FR 10916).
    Pursuant to 29 CFR 90.18(c) reconsideration may be granted under 
the following circumstances:

    (1) If it appears on the basis of facts not previously 
considered that the determination complained of was erroneous;
    (2) if it appears that the determination complained of was based 
on a mistake in the determination of facts not previously 
considered; or
    (3) if in the opinion of the Certifying Officer, a mis-
interpretation of facts or of the law justified reconsideration of 
the decision.

    The TAA petition for workers at Philips Electronics North America 
Corporation, Philips Display Components Company, Ottawa, Ohio, was 
denied because criterion (3) of Section 222 of the Trade Act of 1974, 
as amended, was not met. The workers were engaged in employment related 
to yoke matching which is attaching a yoke to the back of a television 
picture tube. The investigation found that layoffs occurred when the 
company shifted yoke matching to Mexico. The workers are separately 
identifiable by product line. The yoke matching operation is not 
imported. Furthermore, yoke matching increased up until the shift to 
Mexico.
    The petitioner provides a history of cathode ray tube (CRT) 
production at the Ottawa facility over the past 50 years and describes 
various operations that the company is transferring abroad. A shift of 
production to a foreign location is not a criterion for worker group 
eligibility. Increases of imports of articles like or directly 
competitive with those produced by the workers must contribute 
importantly to sales or production declines and worker separations.
    Workers engaged in yoke matching were certified eligible, on 
January 24, 2001, to apply for North American Free Trade Agreement-
Transitional Adjustment Assistance under NAFTA-4336.

Conclusion

    After review of the application and investigative findings, I 
conclude that there has been no error or misinterpretation of the law 
or of the facts which would justify reconsideration of the Department 
of Labor's prior decisions. Accordingly, the application is denied.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 30th day of April, 2001.

Linda G. Poole,
Certifying Officer, Division of Trade Adjustment Assistance.
[FR Doc. 01-12563 Filed 5-17-01; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-30-M