[Federal Register Volume 65, Number 166 (Friday, August 25, 2000)]
[Notices]
[Page 51847]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 00-21730]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

[TA-W-37,633] and [NAFTA-3944]


The Holmes Group, Rival Division, Warrensburg, Missouri; Negative 
Determination Regarding Application for Reconsideration

    By application dated July 20, 2000, petitioners request 
administrative reconsideration of the Department's negative 
determination regarding eligibility to apply for Trade Adjustment 
Assistance (TAA) petition number TA-W-37,633, and North American Free 
Trade Agreement-Transitional Adjustment Assistance (NAFTA-TAA) petition 
number NAFTA-3944, applicable to workers and former workers of The 
Holmes Group, Rival Division, Warrensburg, Missouri. The denial notices 
were signed on June 29, 2000, and published in the Federal Register on 
July 24, 2000, TA-W-37,633 (65 FR 45620) and NAFTA-3944 (65 FR 45621).
    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.
    To support the application for reconsideration, the petitioners 
provided documents related to planned production and budgeted hours for 
the Warrensburg plant for 1999, and parts and sub-assemblies that went 
overseas. The petitioner also states that the subject firm stopped 
parts production within the last year.
    Planned production by the subject firm is not a basis for worker 
group certification under the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. The 
Department is required to examine sales or production of articles 
produced by workers of the firm for the time period relevant to the 
investigation.
    During all of 1999 and the early part of 2000, output at the plant 
was primarily comprised of industrial fans and heaters. Although the 
company relied on imports of heater components, no worker separations 
occurred as the result of the company imports. Employees formerly 
producing components were transferred within the plant to assemble 
finished heaters. Ultimately, the assembly operations were moved from 
Warrensburg, Missouri, to other domestic facilities of The Holmes 
Group.
    The workers were denied eligibility to apply for TAA based on the 
finding that the contributed importantly criterion of the workers group 
eligibility requirements of Section 222 of the Trade Act of 1974, as 
amended, was not met. Layoffs of workers producing heaters at the 
subject firm were attributable to the company's decision to transfer 
production to other domestic facilities.
    The NAFTA-TAA petition investigation for the same worker group 
revealed that criteria (3) and (4) of paragraph (a)(1) of Section 250 
of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, were not met. The subject firm 
did not import from Mexico or Canada, articles like or directly 
competitive with those produced by workers of the firm. There was no 
shift in production from the Warrensburg plant to Mexico or Canada.

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 decision. Accordingly, the application is denied.

    Signed at Washington, DC this 14th day of August 2000.
Grant D. Beale,
Program Manager, Division of Trade Adjustment Assistance.
[FR Doc. 00-21730 Filed 8-24-00; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-30-M