[Federal Register Volume 68, Number 226 (Monday, November 24, 2003)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65953-65954]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 03-29262]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

[TA-W-51,929]


LeSportsac, Manufacturing and Distribution Division, Stearns, KY; 
Notice of Negative Determination Regarding Application for 
Reconsideration

    By application of August 1, 2003, a petitioner requested 
administrative reconsideration of the Department's negative 
determination regarding eligibility to apply for Trade Adjustment 
Assistance (TAA), applicable to workers and former workers of the 
subject firm. The denial notice was signed on July 11, 2003, and 
published in the Federal Register on July 22, 2003 (68 FR 43371).
    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 petition for the workers of LeSportsac, Manufacturing and 
Distribution Division, Stearns, Kentucky was denied because criterion 
(2) was not met. Sales and production of luggage and women's handbags 
at the subject plant increased from February through May 2001 to the 
corresponding period of 2002 and also increased from February through 
May of 2002 to the same period in 2003.
    In the request for reconsideration, the petitioner alleged that 
figures indicating sales and production increases at the subject 
facility incorporated volumes of imports from China. The petitioner 
questions how an employment decline could have occurred in conjunction 
with a sales/production increase.
    A communication with a company official in regard to this 
allegation revealed that the sales and production figures provided to 
the Department in this investigation were for the Stearns facility 
exclusively. The official further stated that the company is in the 
midst of a reorganization of its domestic facilities and that 
employment declines were a result of streamlining production processes 
more efficiently and reapportioning employment to other domestic 
facilities.

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

[[Page 65954]]

facts which would justify reconsideration of the Department of Labor's 
prior decision. Accordingly, the application is denied.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 21st day of October, 2003.
Elliott S. Kushner,
Certifying Officer, Division of Trade Adjustment Assistance.
[FR Doc. 03-29262 Filed 11-21-03; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-30-P