Chambliss' Bizarre Reaction To Whistleblower In Aftermath Of Imperial Sugar Fire Tragedy

Despite the fact that this vice president for operations for Imperial Sugar was a new-hire and claimed he told management about the dangerous, illegal working conditions of the company's plant in Port Wentworth, Georgia that
resulted in the tragic death of 14 and dozens more injured, Senator Saxby Chambliss seemed more interested in calling this whistleblower's sincerity into question instead of focusing blame where it belonged.

Transcript:

HEARING OF THE EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE SAFETY SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE SENATE HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR AND PENSIONS COMMITTEE SUBJECT: DANGEROUS DUST: IS OSHA DOING ENOUGH TO PROTECT WORKERS?

CHAIRED BY: SENATOR PATTY MURRAY (D-WA)

WITNESSES:
•PANEL I EDWIN G. FOULKE JR., ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF LABOR FOR OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH, OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION (OSHA)
•JOHN S. BRESLAND, CHAIRMAN CEO OF U.S. CHEMICAL SAFETY & HAZARD INVESTIGATION BOARD PANEL II AMY SPENCER, SENIOR CHEMICAL ENGINEER, NATIONAL FIRE PROTECTION ASSOCIATION; RICHARD W. PRUGH, SENIOR PROCESS SAFETY SPECIALIST, CHILWORTH TECHNOLOGY INC.
•GRAHAM H. GRAHAM, VICE PRESIDENT FOR OPERATIONS, IMPERIAL SUGAR COMPANY

LOCATION: 430 DIRKSEN SENATE OFFICE BUILDING, WASHINGTON, D.C.
TIME: 10:00 A.M. EDT
DATE: TUESDAY, JULY 29, 2008

TRANSCRIPT OF CLIP:

SEN. CHAMBLISS: Now, I hear you. I think you've already answered that.

Now, you had this meeting with employees at the Port Wentworth plant in which you, Mr. Graham, having gone into this facility, having identified a shocking and dangerous facility at Port Wentworth, you made recommendations to the company which they followed. You told these folks that if they didn't take some corrective action immediately that, according to your words, some of those folks wouldn't be back, they'd be in a morgue.

Why didn't you, Mr. Graham, go to the management of Imperial Sugar Company and say by golly, if you don't shut this plant down now and clean this up you're going to have a dangerous situation to occur -- which did occur two weeks after you said you'd made that statement?

MR. GRAHAM: I did.

SEN. CHAMBLISS: Why didn't you do that?

MR. GRAHAM: I did do that. I told Mr. Sheptor that we -- I was surprised that we hadn't killed anybody already because the plants were so dangerous. I was told that my passion was extreme and I had to temper it. I was told to prepare a board presentation for the end of January, during which I was going to recommend asking for a significant change in the way we operated the plant, and I was prevented from doing so.

SEN. CHAMBLISS: Well, Mr. Graham, here we are six months almost after the incident occurred and you're still working for the same company that you said you gave that kind of mandate to? It gives me cause to question your sincerity in what you've had to say about this.

This has been a very emotional, tragic situation that occurred in south Georgia and is one in which we want to get to the bottom of, obviously, from the standpoint of what happened. But the ultimate result needs to be safety measures put in. And I respect what you say about the fact that you made recommendations to them. But I really have cause to question your sincerity in that because if you were, I can't imagine after what did happen -- and you say you made the statements you did -- why are you still working for this company?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman -- Madame Chairman.

SEN. MURRAY: Well, Senator Chambliss, I appreciate your comments.

Mr. Graham, I do appreciate your coming and speaking today. And I think it's fair for you to be able to respond to those questions, and I will give you that opportunity.

MR. GRAHAM: Well, thank you.

All of the conditions I described pre-existed my appointment. My objective today was to bring forth the facts laid out before me so that we can collectively decide what needs to be done to prevent this sort of tragedy happening again. The employees of both refineries, and indeed in the industry, deserve a safe working environment.

And the reason I'm still there is because I believe I can continue to contribute to achieving that goal. And I will be taking OSHA's findings and moving forward to continue fixing the deficiencies so that we can put these people into an environment which they know is safe and clean. And I will continue that -- continue to work on that over the next several months.

SEN. MURRAY: Thank you very much.

[Federal News Service, 7/29/08]

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Saxby
• Chambliss
• Imperial
• Sugar
• Fire
• Tragedy
• Health
• Education
• Labor
• and
• Pensions
• Subcommittee

[thucy2]

Given Chambliss's repeated concerns about the evils of "big government" and all the terrible things the federal government does, I'm surprised he continues to work in the Senate, and his continued presence there makes me question his sincerity.

[NeilSagan]

Saxby Chambliss questioned the honesty of the witness only after Saxby got an answer that clearly put the finger on company management EVEN after the witness has raised the issue internally, on multiple occasions, and the company chose to kick the can down the road. Later 14 workers dies in a fire.

Who does Saxby work for?

1. All citizens of Georgia

2. Wealthy Georgians

3. George Bush and his agenda

4. Imperial Sugar

5. 2,3 and 4 but not 1 above.

Who protects Georgians from danger?

[johndgray1]

Damn guvmint getting in the way of an honest company making a buck with all them damn safety regulations!So what if you kill a few folks?Hell, it's the cost of doing business!

[OscarLewis]

Chambliss just did what his bosses wanted him to do. He attacked the messenger.

Chambliss is a corporate stooge.

[cracktroop75]

Hes the first guy to vote for troops handing out rations on Bull st.

[cracktroop75]

I and others voted for Martin, without even looing at martins site..

seriously, rigged voting amchines

[auscanadien]

bravo

[Mutedvox]

Truth be known I would bet that Saxby is responsible for the Imperial tragedy by proxy. Someone called him for the favor of stopping the proper oversight on OSHA regulations.

[knowitx]

Ever since the tragedy of the Max Cleland Senate seat loss in 2002 to this Chambliss, it has appeared that something is wrong down there in Georgia.

Max Cleland was a gift to Georgia, and he was voted out in a most twisted campain of deceipt manipulation.

Max was in fact VERY fortunate to have not been reelected, because he has always been a man of the highest integrity, and decency, and might have ended up like Paul Wellstone because of it. Max Cleland was and is a true Hero.

[mrkleen07]

How could Georgia voters re-elect this guy?

Shameful.

[ReliableInsider]

Exactly. The question is: What has happened to Georgia?

They're smart enough to see through this guy.

[aeonjoey]

despicable, absolutely disgusting, he recaps the whistle blower's passionate plea, then asks why he didn't make a plea!