Chambliss to whistleblower: How dare you besmirch Imperial Sugar!
Why am I not surprised that Sen. Saxby Chambliss’ response last week to a whiste-blower’s testimony about February’s deadly Savannah sugar plant fire was to harangue the whistle-blower?
Not surprised either that Chambliss received a $1,000 campaign contribution from the Imperial Sugar Co., which ran the plant so unsafely that OSHA lobbed an $8.8 million fine at the company. All told, Georgia’s senior senator has received $21,500 from the sugar industry in 2007-8 to fund his re-election campaign.
Thirteen employees died in the fire, which was caused by combustible sugar dust. Graham H. Graham, who was Imperial’s vice president of operations for all of 90 days before the fire, testified that he tried to get Imperial to clean up the plant, but: “I was told that my passion was extreme and I had to temper it.”