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Can manufacturers cooperate with a federal agency with a reputation for overzealous enforcing of burdensome rules and regulations--an agency many of them have learned to fear? I'm talking about the Dept. of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the dreaded OSHA. What sounds even less likely: can manufacturers even save money by cooperating with OSHA? Can OSHA ever be a friend?
On Capitol Hill, the rush to "reinvent government," cut government spending, and do more with less resources has hit the Dept. of Labor as hard as other agencies. President Clinton has singled out OSHA, whose inspectors and fines are dreaded in six million US work places, and has told the agency that it must change the way it does business and move into a more collaborative era.
Turning a traditionally hostile relationship around doesn't happen by presidential fiat, however. Both rules and attitudes must change. The effort on the regulatory front began in March, when Clinton ordered the agency to get rid of obsolete regulations; reward results, not red tape; create grass-roots partnerships...