A Holiday That Isn't -- Observance Of King Day Varies Widely

Under their breaths, that's what some call Martin Luther King Jr.'s day. Sure, Monday is a federal holiday, and he was a great man, but what does that mean to private businesses?

If you really want to know, ask the people at Metro.

Two years ago, they tried to run buses on a reduced holiday schedule. It was a disaster, admits Metro spokesman Dan Williams. So they switched back to accommodate all the people going to work. But that didn't work very well either, Williams says.

``People thought we weren't respectfully observing the holiday,'' he sighs. ``But there's a need for regular service, so we're going to provide it.''

Many of Washington's largest employers, including The Boeing Co., don't give their employees the day off. With nearly 107,000 employees, Boeing would fill a few buses even if it were the only business operating.

But other large employers, such as Group Health Cooperative, with almost 8,000 employees, and Safeway, with another 8,000, also have chosen not to designate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday as a holiday.

At the same time, Seattle public schools as well as most private schools give students the day off.

State Rep. Jesse Wineberry, D-Seattle, thinks it's unfortunate that parents do not have the day off with their children.

``The private industries that do not allow this day off do not serve the kind of teaching that can occur between parent and children,'' says Wineberry, who introduced the bill in 1985 making King's birthday a state holiday. ``There is no more fitting holiday when parents and children can come together to talk about equality, peace and justice. That's what the King holiday epitomizes.''

This year a bipartisan resolution will be offered in the Legislature on King's birthday to encourage Washington's corporate community to begin observing the holiday, says Wineberry, chief sponsor of the resolution.

So although this is the fifth year it has been recognized, the holiday, it appears, is not universally observed.

``Let's just say this: Much work remains to be done,'' says James Kelly, executive director of the Washington State Commission on African American Affairs.

In Seattle, federal, city and county offices are closed, but ask a few more questions and it gets more complicated: The county's pools stay open, the city's are closed, for example. State offices are closed except legislative offices, including the governor's office and the Legislature.

And don't infer that government offices are closed throughout the state, either: In Spokane, Monday's not a holiday for city workers.

Even within a single organization, policies differ.

At Weyerhaeuser, about 3,000 salaried employees at corporate headquarters get the day off with pay; most of their 6,500 workers at mills and other facilities generally do not.

``We're doing it here at corporate headquarters because we want to honor Martin Luther King, and our kids are out of school, and because we want to encourage our field operations to do the same thing, but it is their decision'' to work, says Steve Hill, vice president for employee relations.

Field operations may stay open because they have customers who will be working, Hill says. ``You guys don't shut down on Martin Luther King Jr. Day - we're not going to shut down the pulp mill for it either. If the banks are open, the cash-management people for Weyerhaeuser are going to be there.''

At The Seattle Times, Monday will be a regular working day and the paper will publish on a nonholiday schedule. But, says Mason Sizemore, president and chief operating officer, ``if any of our employees wish to take the day off, we will do all we can to accommodate that as unpaid leave.''

For The Times, too, what other companies are doing plays a part in the decision.

Most business customers expect The Times to be open, Sizemore says, ``because it's a day of normal commerce in the community. We're here to serve those businesses and we feel we need to be open.''

Many employers have skirted the issue by instituting ``floating holidays,'' ones that can be taken at an employee's discretion.

The move has many advantages for the employee, says Lisa Bowerstock of U S West, which has been moving in that direction for the past several years, converting several designated holidays to floating holidays.

Now, employees get six fixed holidays and eight floating days off. ``We feel that empowers employees and gives them more flexibility,'' says Bowerstock.

Spokane's city government, too, has decided to convert several designated holidays to floating holidays, explains Roger Crum, deputy city manager.

Of course, Crum concedes, it also saves the employer money. On nondesignated holidays, employers don't pay overtime, a savings that can be considerable for any organization. And paid holidays are expensive for employers, any way you cut it.

``Any holiday is an employee benefit, and there's a cost to all employee benefits,'' says Jack McRae, spokesman for Pacific Car and Foundry Co. (PACCAR), which does not recognize the King holiday.

``Any holiday has to be looked at in terms of the cost to the corporation,'' McRae says, a cost that may include lost sales because the employees are off when customers are not.

Most businesses and public agencies contacted said they weren't aware of pressure from employees to designate King's day as a holiday.

``It gets bargained like any other holiday,'' says The Times' Sizemore. ``The vast majority of our unions, which have contracts for most of our employees, have not negotiated it as a holiday.''

In many cases, says Karen Keiser, Washington State Labor Council communications director, that's because union contracts haven't come up for negotiation since the holiday was designated nationally in 1986.

``It's a transition time in most cases,'' she says.

In the ``concessionary climate'' that has sapped their strength in the past few years, most unions were forced to simply defend what they had, and weren't in a position to ask for another holiday, she says.

The formal, official position of organized labor is that it supports the holiday, she says. ``There's no question about our position. It's just hard sometimes getting through the transition period.''

Some people, such as the Rev. Samuel McKinney, longtime civil-rights activist and pastor of Mount Zion Baptist Church, question the motives of employers who cite economics for not observing the holiday.

Sometimes, he says, the motive is ``racism cloaked in the guise of economics.''

As long as employers are talking economics, though, how about talking about about investment in ``human capital,'' suggests Kelly of the African American commission.

Kelly thinks King himself said it best:

``I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the way our world is made. . . . We are interdependent.''

``Dr. King wouldn't want us to be so preoccupied with the holiday but with the values of justice for all, of equality,'' says Kelly.

The rise of hate groups such as the skinheads or the Ku Klux Klan, killings of Asian children in California and the murder of women students in Canada show how much need there is to renew the discussion of equal rights and justice, Kelly says.

Such discussions are already taking place, he believes, as corporate managers and others contemplate issues like ``valuing a diverse work force.''

``People wouldn't have thought diddly squat about valuing a diverse work force a few years ago,'' Kelly says.

Legislator Wineberry, for one, thinks parents need a time - a special time - to talk about these issues with their children. It's a new decade, says Wineberry, and he hopes that the corporate bottom line can be redefined in the '90s to include working for the country's social health.

The call to respect a holiday whose purpose is to highlight these issues challenges companies' corporate responsibility, he says.

``I have enough faith in corporate Washington and corporate Seattle after having worked with them for the past several years to know they will be sensitive enough to resolve this issue in the interests of our society becoming more socially conscious,'' says Wineberry.

``Hopefully, 10 years from now there will be no need for an article like this.''

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WHAT'S OPEN, WHAT'S CLOSED

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Seattle city offices: closed

City pools and community centers: closed

Zoo, aquarium and Tennis Center: open

Garbage pickup: normal schedule

Metro buses: regular schedule

County offices: closed

County pools: open

State offices: Closed except legislative offices, including the governor's office and the Legislature.

Federal offices: closed

Seattle Times: regular afternoon editions

Seattle public schools: closed

Most private schools: closed

Banks: closed