Smaller manufacturers get workers' comp option.

To help hold onto Maryland manufacturing firms and their high-paying jobs, two statewide business organizations are trying a new cost-control approach to workers' compensation insurance.

The Maryland Chamber of Commerce and the Maryland Manufacturers Association have created a special insurance trust that gives small- to medium-sized manufacturing firms the same kind of cost advantages that giant companies - such as McCormick & Co. Inc. or Black & Decker Corp. - get through tightly managed self-insurance programs.

Chris Costello, the chamber's vice president for marketing, said member companies are pooling their resources to create the Maryland Manufacturing …