Some Workers Must Mark the Holiday on Their Own Time

Early Monday morning Zack Harmon called his workplace to say he would be out sick. Hours later, though, Harmon appeared to be in suspiciously good health. He stood with his 2-year-old son perched upon his shoulder and watched the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade flow down King Boulevard in South Los Angeles.

Like Harmon, many Los Angeles workers and students were forced to feign illness or expend vacation days or accumulated time off Monday in order to participate in the observance of what would have been the civil rights leader’s 61st birthday. Though the third Monday in January was designated a federal holiday honoring King in 1986, many offices and some private schools still remained open.

Harmon echoed the sentiments of other absentees who could be found along the parade route when he explained his decision not to report to work. It is important, he said, to commemorate a man and a movement that “changed the face of the whole nation. That’s why I’m here and that’s why he’s here,” he said, indicating his son, Michael.

Harmon, a financial analyst, said calling in sick was the only way he could get the day off, and that his employers were aware of the ruse and accepted it.

“I told them I was sick, but they know,” he said.

Others said their bosses are less benign. They described personal battles to persuade school officials and employees to recognize the day.

M. Jeremy McCauley, an analyst at McDonnell Douglas, said he was was appalled when he read the latest company newsletter. Across the top ran a line in bold print informing employees that Jan. 15 was to be “a regular working day.”

“I was burned up by that,” he said. “The inference is that it is not as deserving as any other holiday . . . enough so that they put it in the newsletter.”

To observe the day, McCauley would have had to use a vacation day, a sick day or a personal day. He decided to report to work.

“Here it’s no big deal. It’s no special day and I don’t understand that. It shows little respect or concern for Dr. King.”

Incensed, McCauley already has begun writing a letter to the company newspaper detailing his feelings.

Don Hanson, spokesman for McDonnell Douglas, said company holidays are negotiated with the union.

“The company has 13 holidays a year and King Day is not one of those that they chose to put in, at least not so far,” he said. Hanson also noted that many company holidays have been consolidated so employees have a week off from Christmas through New Year’s.

Other companies have given employees the option of using a floating holiday to observe the day. Barbara Hughes, an employee at Warner Brothers, used a floating holiday to observe King Day. But Hughes feels that is a way of sidestepping the issue. Going to the parade was her way of “making a statement.”

“I hope to maybe show management that we as employees at Warner Brothers should have (King Day) as a holiday,” she said.

Rob Friedman, company spokesman, said King Day was not a union holiday, so the studios were open.

Evelyn Brummell, a sales clerk at Sears, used a personal day off she had saved.

“He gave his life, so I can at least take one day,” she said.

To Elimu Kiongozi, an aerospace employee who could be found at work Monday, the sanctioning of the holiday by schools and officials is less important than African-Americans acknowledging the day.

“We should just take the day off whether The Man is going to let us or not . . . even if it costs us,” said Kiongozi, adding that other leaders like Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey should have days of commemoration in the African-American community as well.

While the holiday was observed by public schools and universities, some students of private schools found themselves engaged in the controversy over observing the day.

For example, at Occidental College, classes were held Monday, but many of the school’s students chose to attend an anti-apartheid rally at the South African Consulate as a way of observing King’s birthday.

A candlelight vigil was held Monday night as the students’ first organized attempt to convince the administration that the day should be a school holiday. Frances Hill, the school’s news director, said Occidental is on the quarter system and does not observe other holidays such as President’s Day. The school’s administration is sympathetic to the request of students to observe the day, she added.