Burbank Workers Doubly Thankful for Gulf War Tribute

President Bush has asked Americans to devote this weekend to prayers of gratitude for the return of the Gulf War troops.

But in Burbank, Marlene Clements says she’d rather catch up on housework. And Brett Kornblatt will probably go skiing.

Clements and Kornblatt are two of 745 Burbank employees who are getting two paid holidays because of a small-print clause in a union contract that requires the city to give its employees not just one, but two vacation days whenever the President or governor proclaims a “public fasting, thanksgiving or holiday.”

“Thanksgiving” is the key word. Bush never intended his patriotic tribute to be interpreted as a legal holiday. But he declared today through Sunday the National Days of Thanksgiving and the vague wording in Burbank’s Civil Service Rules allows the President’s devotional to be lumped in with the more traditional Turkey Day.

So, city workers get their time in the sun . . . or the snow.

“The skiing’s so good that I might go to the mountains. Or maybe I’ll go to Vegas,” said Kornblatt, a gym supervisor at the Verdugo Recreation Center.

“I’m sure not going to stick around Burbank,” he said.

Burbank settled its confusion Tuesday when the City Council gave employees two “floating” holidays--one to be used before June 30 and another to be used during the subsequent 12 months. Granting the holidays averted a threatened lawsuit and spreading them out avoided shutting down the city for four days.

The compromise ended a small local war.

The Burbank City Employees Assn. discovered the little-known clause and brought it to the City Council’s attention last month. The provision, which city officials said was meant only to provide the traditional two-day Thanksgiving holiday, applies to most workers below middle management.

City Manager Robert R. Ovrom, in a letter to the union last Friday, wrote that to turn the President’s tribute into a paid holiday “could prove to be a serious embarrassment for the city” and the union members. Neil Hancock, the union president, responded by threatening legal action.

In a memo Tuesday to Burbank’s City Council, Ovrom labeled the union’s position “hypertechnical” and “absurd.”

He also noted that, technically at least, it had merit.

Thus, the City Council struck its deal. Not everyone is satisfied.

“It couldn’t have been more of a slap in the face to the families of the GIs,” said Councilman Michael Hastings, who voted against the compromise. “I don’t believe the President of the United States intended anyone to get a holiday from this. The thing that really hit my hot button was someone coming in and saying ‘Hey, a holiday. I’ll take it.’ ”

Several workers said they don’t care what the City Council thinks.

“They’re upset about everything we do,” said a mechanic who declined to be identified. “It’s a nice benefit. I’ll use it to spend time with my family.”

As a patriotic gesture, the city firefighters’ union refused to take the days off, although only two of its members were eligible, a city administrator said.

Meanwhile at the White House, the Administration said the President never dreamed anything such as this could happen.

“He makes proclamations all the time,” without setting off labor disputes, a White House spokeswoman said.

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