Last year, a massive explosion tore through the Imperial Sugar refinery in Savannah, Georgia killing 14 workers and injuring dozens more. The loss of lives and injuries was tragic enough but now, adding insult to injury, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) said that company executives knew about dust hazards at the plant for at least six years. Company records revealed Imperial had been warned repeatedly about combustible dust hazards and ignored them. On the fateful day the sugar dust ignited like gunpowder causing a huge fireball.
Imperial routinely ignored the safety reports of its own consultants; in fact, one such report was sent to them just two days before the explosion warning again of the dangerous conditions created by the faulty dust collection system. OSHA is now levying $8.7 million in fines against Imperial for the safety violations at the Georgia plant and a similar plant in Gramercy, Louisiana. Naturally, Imperial is denying they ignored the warnings and are contesting the fines. But what about the blast survivors and the surviving family members of the dead workers? Where is justice for their devastating losses? Once again, they will have to turn to attorneys and the judicial system for appropriate compensation.
For too long big corporations running manufacturing plants of all types have repeatedly put profits over the safety concerns of their workers. OSHA fines after the fact when a tragedy like this occurs is little consolation for the families of the victims. Better oversight, stricter enforcement and consequences with enough teeth to get the corporations’ attention is what we need. And we need it now before we read another sad headline.
Richard J. Arsenault, 2011
