NAACP Branch Pushes for Paid King Holiday
The Hanford branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People submitted paperwork this week for a ballot measure that would establish the Monday closest to Martin Luther King Jr.’s Jan. 15 birthday as a paid holiday for city employees, said NAACP member W. Al Cason. The group hopes to place the initiative on the November 2006 ballot.
But City Councilwoman Marcie Buford said the city cannot afford to give municipal employees another holiday.
The city’s public employees union has offered to give up a paid Thanksgiving holiday to get a day off for the slain civil rights leader, but the city has refused, said Bill Shawhan, a consultant for the Central California Assn. of Public Employees.
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