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SCANA denies targeting of Confederate flag

Tuesday, August 20, 2002
BY SCHUYLER KROPF
Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier

SCANA Corp. CEO William Timmerman has denied there is a new written policy that specifically bans the Confederate flag on company property or prevents workers from taking company trucks to controversial barbecue baron Maurice Bessinger's restaurants.
In a three-page letter to state Sen. Glenn McConnell dated Monday, Timmerman says that contrary to news reports, SCANA has not targeted the Confederate flag, including its display on employees' vehicles.
"We do not have any written policy on what specific symbols, actions, dress or behavior is inappropriate for the workplace," he said.
Instead, Timmerman said, divisive symbols of all kinds are discouraged as a matter of policy and that complaints will be investigated whenever they arise to both preserve employee morale and to head off potential litigation.
Among the suggested items he listed are anti-union signs put up by non-union workers, or suggestive pinups, calendars or posters, just to name a few.
"As you can see, no one symbol or behavior has been singled out for special attention," he wrote, adding that nothing in the policy is new.
Bessinger's restaurants surfaced last week as being out of bounds for SCANA vehicles because Bessinger, a long-time Confederate flag supporter, has drawn controversy for literature offered at his restaurants, including one tract that suggests Africans liked slavery.
"I can assure you that our code of conduct does not target the Confederate flag or any particular restaurant," Timmerman's letter states to McConnell, R-Charleston, and president pro tempore of the South Carolina state Senate.
"No new announcement has been made banning any specific symbol or behavior. Certainly no employee who displays a state-issued license plate with a Confederate flag or a membership decal from a heritage group on their private vehicle would be disciplined," he said.
The letter comes as McConnell, who owns a Confederate memorabilia store, queried Timmerman last week about any new policies SCANA may have adopted on the Confederate flag after the issue was widely reported by Columbia news media.
SCANA, parent company of South Carolina Electric & Gas and other subsidiaries, has 5,480 employees, including 2,219 in the Columbia area, where Bessinger's restaurants are primarily located.
McConnell had threatened to pass legislation to deny state contracts to any company that "tramples on free speech" or discriminates against businesses.
Timmerman said The State newspaper report caused the controversy and was something "SCANA did not create and does not wish to perpetuate." The State on Monday defended its reports of SCANA's policies.
"Our stories accurately reflect the practices described to us by SCANA's corporate spokeswoman," the newspaper said in a statement. "A careful reading of Mr. Timmerman's letter does not change the facts of our stories."
Timmerman's letter states that SCANA employees have not been banned from patronizing any restaurant or business.
"As to the issue of driving company-owned vehicles onto the grounds of restaurants where the Confederate flag is displayed (or where other symbols are displayed that some passengers in those vehicles might consider offensive), we have asked employees to be considerate of the feelings of their co-workers, even if they might not personally agree with those feelings," Timmerman said.
"No one driving a company-owned vehicle should insist on dining in an establishment that displays flags or sells literature that other passengers in that vehicle may find offensive," he added. "This is basic consideration of the feelings of others.
McConnell said Monday he was pleased SCANA is not specifically targeting the Confederate flag, saying any blanket ban on its display might constitute an attack on free speech.
"This is really a freedom of expression fight. What's next, a cross?" McConnell asked. "Where does it stop, this political correctness?"