[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 218 (Friday, November 12, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65460-65461]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E4-3143]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

[TA-W-54,674, TA-W-54,674A, TA-W-54,674B, TA-W-54,674C, and TA-W-
54,674D]


Major League, Inc., Mount Airy, NC; Major League, Inc., Jasper, 
GA; Major League, Inc., McAllen, TX; Major League, Inc., San Antonio, 
TX; Major League, Inc., Martinsville, VA; Notice of Revised 
Determination on Reconsideration

    On September 9, 2004, the Department issued an Affirmative 
Determination Regarding Application on Reconsideration applicable to 
workers and former workers of the subject firm. The Notice of the 
determination was published in the Federal Register on September 22, 
2004 (69 FR 56788).
    The request for reconsideration, filed on August 3, 2004, 
supplemented a previous request for administrative reconsideration 
which was dismissed on July 21, 2004 (69 FR 47182) on the ground that 
the original application did not contain any new substantial 
information that would bear importantly on the Department's 
determination denying certification because Major League did not have a 
``significant number or proportion'' of workers at its Mount Airy 
location who were separated or threatened with separation to meet the 
requirement of section 222(a)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended. 
Significantly, the reconsideration request dated August 3, 2004 
contended that the petition was filed by Major League on behalf of all 
of its workers of ``Major League/Activewear's apparel division,'' and 
was not limited to the sole worker for Major League who was located in 
Mount Airy, North Carolina.
    The investigation of the August 3, 2004 request for reconsideration 
revealed that the company official who filed the initial petition, 
intended the filing of the petition to be on behalf of all workers of 
Major League, Inc., including those working from other locations that 
reported to him at Major League's corporate headquarters in Jasper, 
Georgia. The company official identified two workers, located in 
McAllen, Texas and San Antonio, Texas, respectively, who were separated 
from employment with Major League between January and April 2004 along 
with the Major League employee located in Mount Airy, North Carolina.
    Additional information was also obtained in the reconsideration 
investigation regarding the relationship between workers employed by 
Major League and the manufacture of apparel at a trade affected 
affiliated facility: Active Wear, Inc., Martinsville, Virginia (TA-W-
54,339, certified on March 31, 2004). Major League workers were engaged 
in activities relating to the coordination of textile purchases and the 
shipping of textiles from Active Wear to Major League. Therefore, the 
workers were in support of the manufacture by Active Wear (scheduling 
and inventory control related to the textile purchases from Active 
Wear). Major League and Active Wear are affiliated by common ownership 
and are vertically integrated with regard to the production that took 
place at the Active Wear facility in Martinsville, Virginia. Two of the 
three shareholders of Major League owned 50% of the stock of Active 
Wear.
    Section 222(a) of the Trade Act provides, in relevant part, for the 
certification of a group of workers when ``a significant number or 
proportion of the worker in such workers' firm, or an appropriate 
subdivision of the firm, have become totally or partially separated, or 
are threatened to become totally or partially separated'' and increased 
imports have contributed importantly to such separations. The 
Department's regulations at 29 C.F.R. 90.2 define the terms ``firm,'' 
``appropriate subdivision,'' ``group,'' and ``significant number or 
proportion of the workers.'' While the Department usually identifies at 
least three workers at each facility location of a small firm before 
certifying a group of workers at that appropriate subdivision location, 
where three workers in the firm report to a single location of that 
firm, such as the firm's headquarters, the ``group'' may be found to 
consist of at least a total of three workers regardless of the work 
location. For example, a worker who travels between two or more 
locations of the firm or engages in telecommuting for all or part of 
the work week will not be excluded from consideration as part of a 
group of workers at an auxiliary facility merely because he or she does 
not report to work each day to the same facility and his or her 
paycheck is sent to a different location. Under these circumstances, it 
would not serve the purpose of the ``significant number of 
separations'' requirement to deny certification of a worker group when 
there are at least three separated workers at different locations who 
all report to headquarters even though there were not at least three 
separated workers at each of those locations.
    Although workers employed by Major League are located in Mount 
Airy, North Carolina; McAllen, Texas; San Antonio, Texas; and 
Martinsville, Virginia, all of their activities are coordinated, and 
the workers are issued directives, from the company headquarters. Thus, 
the subject worker group of this petition consists of workers of the 
subject firm at these four locations as well as at the Jasper, Georgia 
company headquarters.
    Information obtained in the investigation subsequent to the initial 
negative determination reveals that a significant number or proportion 
of workers of the subject worker group described above have been 
separated under section 222(a)(1) of the Trade Act of 1974, as amended, 
and the applicable regulations, as discussed above. In addition to the 
worker at Mount Airy, North Carolina, there were at least a total of 
two other workers at the McAllen, Texas and San Antonio, Texas 
locations who were totally or partially separated from employment by 
Major League between January and April 2004.
    Increased imports of articles like or directly competitive with 
those produced at Active Wear, Inc.,

[[Page 65461]]

Martinsville, Virginia, a firm affiliated with and substantially 
beneficially owned by the same persons who own the subject firm, 
contributed importantly to the declines in sales or production and to 
the total or partial separation of workers at that firm, as determined 
by the Department in TA-W-54,339. Because the subject firm may be 
considered to be a single firm with Active Wear under the Department's 
definition of ``firm,'' and the subject group of Major League workers 
are an appropriate subdivision of that firm for trade adjustment 
assistance certification requirements because it operated in 
conjunction with Active Wear's Martinsville facility, increased imports 
also are found to have contributed importantly to the firm's sales or 
production and worker separations (and threatened separations) at the 
subject worker group.
    On September 23, 2004, the petitioner filed an appeal with the U.S. 
Court of International Trade. By order dated October 29, 2004, the 
court has granted the Department leave to file this determination.

Conclusion

    After careful review of the additional facts obtained on 
reconsideration and the entire record, I conclude that increased 
imports of like or directly competitive articles contributed 
importantly to the Major League/Active Wear firm and the total or 
partial separation of workers in the subject group. In accordance with 
the provisions of the Act, I make the following certification:

    All workers of Major League, Inc., Mount Airy, North Carolina 
(TA-W-54,674), Major League, Inc., Jasper, Georgia (TA-W-54,674A), 
Major League, Inc., McAllen, Texas (TA-W-54,674B), Major League, 
Inc., San Antonio, Texas (TA-W-54,674C), and Major League, Inc., 
Martinsville, Virginia (TA-W-54,674D) who became totally or 
partially separated from employment on or after March 24, 2003 
through two years of this certification, are eligible to apply for 
trade adjustment assistance under Section 223 of the Trade Act of 
1974.

    Signed in Washington, DC this 3rd day of November 2004.
Elliott S. Kushner,
Certifying Officer, Division of Trade Adjustment Assistance.
 [FR Doc. E4-3143 Filed 11-10-04; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-30-P