[Federal Register Volume 75, Number 205 (Monday, October 25, 2010)]
[Notices]
[Pages 65523-65524]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2010-26769]


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DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

[TA-W-70,395]


Dawson Metal Company, Inc., Industrial Division, Jamestown, NY; 
Notice of Negative Determination on Reconsideration

    On January 21, 2010, the Department of Labor issued an Affirmative 
Determination Regarding Application for Reconsideration for the workers 
and former workers of the subject firm. The Department's Notice of 
affirmative determination was published in the Federal Register on 
February 16, 2010 (75 FR 7030). The workers are engaged in employment 
related to precision sheet metal fabrication.
    The initial negative determination based on the findings that the 
subject firm did not increase their imports of articles like or 
directly competitive with the articles produced by the workers during 
the relevant period and did not shift to a foreign country the 
production of like or directly competitive articles. Further, a survey 
of the major declining customer of the subject firm regarding

[[Page 65524]]

purchases of precision sheet metal fabrication for 2007, 2008, and 
January through April 2009 revealed decreased imports. The 
investigation also revealed that the subject firm is not a supplier or 
downstream producer to a firm that employed a worker group eligible to 
apply for Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA).
    In the request for reconsideration, the petitioner alleged that, in 
November 2008, the subject firm's largest customer transferred forty 
percent of its base contract for self check-out cabinets to a firm in 
Canada, and that the shift in supplier caused a downturn in business 
for the subject firm and the subsequent worker separations.
    In response to the request, the Department sought further details 
about the circumstances surrounding the separations, especially the 
relationship between the separations and the alleged decline in sales 
to a customer which allegedly began to outsource like and directly 
competitive articles from a Canadian firm.
    The reconsideration investigation revealed that the workers are 
separately identifiable by product line and that the subject firm sold 
two types of precision sheet metal fabrication to the customer named in 
the request for reconsideration: Sheet metal cabinets for self check-
out units, and sheet metal parts to modify those basic cabinets to 
accommodate a variety of peripherals, such as computers and cameras.
    The reconsideration investigation regarding self check-out units 
revealed that the subject firm's largest customer did transfer a 
significant proportion of its purchases of such cabinets for self 
check-out units to a foreign source; however, during the relevant 
period sales of these self check-out cabinets to this customer 
increased significantly.
    Further, an analysis revealed that, although the subject firm's 
share of cabinet purchases by this customer declined, that customer so 
greatly increased the amount of its purchases of self check-out 
cabinets overall that its purchases of those items from the subject 
firm actually increased significantly.
    Additionally, during the reconsideration investigation, the subject 
firm provided the Department with the names of its four largest 
declining customers.
    During the course of the original investigation, customer surveys 
were conducted for two firms which accounted for 68% percent of the 
decline in sales of the subject firm during the first four months of 
2009. Those surveys revealed that one company did not import any like 
or directly competitive articles during the relevant period, while the 
other decreased its imports of like and directly competitive articles 
by 98 percent during the same period.
    During the reconsideration investigation, the Department contacted 
a third company but did not survey the customer because of the 
relatively insignificant scale of the customer's decline. The fourth 
customer was the customer identified in the request for 
reconsideration. Because self check-out unit sales by the subject firm 
to this customer increased during the relevant period (as stated above) 
and the workers of the subject firm are separately identifiable by 
product line, the Department did not survey this customer.

Conclusion

    After a careful review of information obtained during the 
reconsideration investigation and previously-submitted information, I 
affirm the original notice of negative determination of eligibility to 
apply for worker adjustment assistance for workers and former workers 
of Dawson Metal Company, Inc., Industrial Division, Jamestown, New 
York.

    Signed in Washington, DC, this 7th day of October 2010.
Del Min Amy Chen,
Certifying Officer, Office of Trade Adjustment Assistance.
[FR Doc. 2010-26769 Filed 10-22-10; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4510-FN-P