2025 doesn’t come close to the outrage over OSHA in 1980  

By Dave Johnson

Image: Douglas Rissing / iStock / Getty Images Plus

Scorned and hated
    I began reporting on OSHA for ISHN magazine in 1980 and those were different days. It was something like being a war correspondent. OSHA was only nine years old, having been signed into law by President Richard Nixon at the end of 1970. Much of industry was still learning about OSHA inspections, policing, penalties and detailed, petty and unnecessary regulations, according to critics. The reaction was fiery, and OSHA was vulnerable, much more so than in 2025 as a 55-year-old agency. In 1980 the jury – in the form of research — was still out as to whether OSHA was even effective in reducing injuries and fatalities.
    “Since its creation in 1970, hardly any Federal department or agency has come in for more scorn (than OSHA), reported The New York Times.
    “The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is one of the most hated government agencies in the eyes of American business,” reported the Washington Post.

    “When Ronald Reagan was a Presidential candidate back in 1980, he saw OSHA as the perfect symbol of the harmful intrusion of the Federal Government into American life, a champion nitpicker, harassing companies and industries for their failure to comply with what they considered hundreds of silly OSHA safety regulations,” summarized The New York Times.
    The John Birch Society, a far-right organization vehemently opposed to communism and committed to promoting limited government, had been dogging OSHA for years, believing the agency was unconstitutional. In 1972 it began the first coordinated national campaign calling for OSHA’s abolishment. Local “Nix on OSHA” committees sprang up, alluding to President Nixon’s role in creating the agency.

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    The American Conservative Union created its own STOP OSHA campaign and pushed for one of two Congressional bills calling for OSHA reform. I visited the small STOP OSHA office in Washington, D.C., and it reminded me of a war room. STOP OSHA and business groups threw their weight behind Senator Richard Schweiker’s (R-PA) and Senator Harrison Williams’s (D-NJ) bi-partisan “Occupational Safety and Health Improvements Act of 1980.” Senator Schweiker said “OSHA has become probably the most despised federal agency in existence. After nine years, there is no real evidence that it works.” His bill would exempt 90 percent of all workplaces from routine OSHA inspections.
The “OSHA Reform Act of 1980” was introduced in the House by Rep. George Hansen (R-ID). It would exempt non-hazardous businesses from the Occupation Safety and Health Act of 1970.

Battle lines drawn

    The battle lines were drawn. Industry groups and Republicans attacked; Democrats, organized labor and former agency heads defended OSHA.
   Schweiker’s bill would turn OSHA into a coroner’s office, warned the United Electrical Workers. The bill gives employers a license to maim and kill, claimed the United Auto Workers. “Kill the bill before it kills you,” urged the United Steelworkers.

    The Schweiker-Harrison bill got as far as a Senate Labor Committee hearing and stalled out. Hansen’s bill in the House failed to receive a vote.
    The battle was not over. Labor was upset that President Reagan nominated Thorne Auchter to head OSHA. Auchter was a 35-year-old construction company executive who directed special events for the Reagan campaign in Florida. Conservatives and the business community pulled no punches with Auchter. Senate Labor Committee chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT) told Auchter he was ready to seek legislation to abolish OSHA. Several other congressmen told Auchter that they too favored eliminating the agency. Savvy and aggressive, Auchter persuaded critics to give him a grace period of one year to try to turn the agency around.

    The Schweiker-Harrison bill got as far as a Senate Labor Committee hearing and stalled out. Hansen’s bill in the House failed to receive a vote.
    The battle was not over. Labor was upset that President Reagan nominated Thorne Auchter to head OSHA. Auchter was a 35-year-old construction company executive who directed special events for the Reagan campaign in Florida. Conservatives and the business community pulled no punches with Auchter. Senate Labor Committee chair Orrin Hatch (R-UT) told Auchter he was ready to seek legislation to abolish OSHA. Several other congressmen told Auchter that they too favored eliminating the agency. Savvy and aggressive, Auchter persuaded critics to give him a grace period of one year to try to turn the agency around.

    I interviewed Auchter early in his tenure by phone from ISHN’s office in Philadelphia. It was the most contentious interview I’ve ever had with an OSHA chief. He was sharp, combative and defensive. I believe it was the spirit of the times that provoked Auchter. Labor was outraged and businesses and Republicans pressed him to quickly show “regulatory relief” results. No, he told me, the fox is not guarding the hen house at OSHA. No, he was not there to dismantle OSHA. There needed to be less nitpicking policing by inspectors, more compliance assistance. He would study the need for more regulations, not dismiss them out of hand. Costs and benefits had to be evaluated. Enforcement would not be impeded.
    In fact, some of OSHA’s most sweeping regulations came out in the Auchter era. The hazard communication standard and the hearing conservation standard were both published in 1983.
    In March 1984, Auchter left OSHA, to be replaced by Robert Rowland, a reserved, low-profile former Texas tax lawyer, millionaire Republican Party fund-raiser, and former chair of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission. According to the AFL-CIO, he voted to uphold OSHA citations 16 percent of the time compared to the other panel members’ 63 percent average.

Responding to critics
    By this time, the business community perceived OSHA’s regulatory zeal had been tamed. ''I don't think there's a regulatory agency in Washington that has delivered more on candidate Reagan's promises on regulatory reform - OSHA's way out in front in that respect,'' said Mark de Bernardo, a labor specialist for the United States Chamber of Commerce.
    That’s not how labor and safety advocates saw it. During the Reagan years, OSHA lost funding and people. Its staffing went from 2,951 in 1980 to 2,211 in 1987. Inspectors cited fewer “serious” violations and greatly reduced the size of penalties assessed. OSHA instituted a new system for exempting firms with good safety records from safety inspections and targeting those with poor records. “General Duty” clause citations were restricted and the requirement for walkaround pay was dropped.
    Standards-setting slowed dramatically. It took six years and a lawsuit for OSHA to issue its formaldehyde standard and five years and a Congressional mandate for the issuance of the blood borne pathogens standard. Other rulemaking initiated during the Reagan Administration took much longer. Standards on 1,3 butadiene, methylene chloride and respiratory protection each took 12 years from start to finish and were not completed until the Clinton Administration.
    By the time President Clinton entered the White House in 1993 OSHA had weathered the storm and Republican regulatory relief was off the radar. Since passage of the 1970 legislation creating OSHA, workplace deaths had been cut in half. Next up: Vice President Al Gore’s Partnership for Reinventing Government. Launched in 1993, this was an attempt to bring private sector efficiency and customer service to federal agencies. OSHA was the poster child for bringing back common sense, partnership and flexibility to regulation, according to a White House press release. Some argued OSHA’s focus was shifting to efficiency rather than safety. Thirty-two years later, another administration is making daily headlines with its onslaught to maximize federal government efficiency. OSHA, of course, is one of the targets.