DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration

TA-W-38,396

PHILIPS ELECTRONICS NORTH AMERICAN CORPORATION
PHILIPS DISPLAY COMPONENTS COMPANY
OTTAWA, OHIO

Notice of Negative Determination
Regarding Application for Reconsideration


By application of February 23, 2001, the International
Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local 1654, request
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, D.C., this 30th day of April, 2001.
/s/ Linda G. Poole

LINDA G. POOLE
Certifying Officer, Division
of Trade Adjustment Assistance