Can you believe it? Another holiday is already around the corner. Phone In Sick Day is barely a week away.

Phone in Sick Day was declared an American holiday Wednesday by the anti-establishment, design-firm-cum-agitprop group RTMark, which "acquired" the holiday from the Europe-based "Decadent Action." The latter has been promoting the holiday for several years across the Pond.

The idea is rail against the erosion of the eight-hour work day and the accompanying "dwindling quality of life" in both America and Europe.

"The erosion of leisure is no longer limited to America," RTMark said in its statement. "As European countries are increasingly forced to dismantle social programs and adopt American-style measures to benefit corporate health, we can be sure that they will all go the way of the United States."

The group predicts that two-month vacations will shrink to two weeks in Europe, and maternity leave will be similarly shortened. "Therefore, RTMark encourages Europeans, and other First Worlders for whom May 1 is already a holiday, to phone in sick on May 2."

On Wednesday, RTMark issued its call to down tools in an email spam to Internet users, many of whom are notorious for logging long -- and mainly futile -- hours in pursuit of IPO dreams.

RTMark claims the "holiday" played a role in the "sickouts" of 2,000 airline employees in Britain in 1997 and thousands of policemen in Ireland in 1998.

May 2 was chosen because of its proximity to May Day, the day when labor unions traditionally honor workers worldwide. It has lost most of its significance in the United States, where Labor Day sort of takes its place. Of course, for most Americans, Labor Day is more about barbecuing than it is about the honoring the worker.

But RTMark hasn't forgotten May Day's significance, or the battles waged by organized labor in the 19th century to bring decent working conditions to the masses. It wants the memory of those battles -- including the bloody Chicago riots of 1889 -- to be honored again.

"Their sacrifice has been celebrated since 1889 nearly everywhere in the world except America," RTMark said in its holiday manifesto. "... RTMark wishes to help rectify this imbalance."