"[E]mployers and employees must do their part...as they are doing in so many of our finest companies -- working together, putting the long-term prosperity ahead of the short-term gain. As workers increase their hours and their productivity, employers should make sure they get the skills they need and share the benefits of the good years, as well as the burdens of the bad ones. When companies and workers work as a team they do better, and so does America."

-- President Clinton,
State of the Union Address, 1/23/96

• The White House Corporate Citizenship Conference builds on the President's State of the Union Challenge for employers and employees to join together to put long-term prosperity ahead of short term gain. President Clinton believes that employees have a duty to their companies to make them profitable, and employers owe a duty to employees to make them more valuable through job training and education.

• President Clinton first called for the convening of this conference in his speech on corporate citizenship at Xavier University in Ohio on March 23, 1996. In that speech, President Clinton outlined Five Corporate Citizenship Challenges:
  1. FAMILY-FRIENDLY WORKPLACES: Create workplaces that allow workers to be both productive workers and caring and responsible family members. Family friendly policies can range from flexible work schedules, to help with child and elder care, to time off for parent-teacher meetings. Companies that recognize our broader obligations as parents, family members and citizens off-the-job get more committed employees on-the-job.

  2. HEALTH AND RETIREMENT SECURITY: Provide the security that a living wage, health care, and pension benefits can give.

  3. SAFE AND SECURE WORKPLACES: Protect the health and safety of employees through management commitment and employee involvement.

  4. INVESTMENT IN EMPLOYEES: Recognize that investments in your employees are every bit as important as investing in factories and equipment. Provide broad opportunities for education and training both in and outside the firm, for new skills and advancement.

  5. PARTNERSHIP WITH EMPLOYEES: Give employees a voice in the workplace and share the burdens and benefits of good times and bad. When restructuring and layoffs are essential to a company's long-term health: be open, be helpful, and be fair. Productive companies need committed employees.

PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE WILL MEET WITH BUSINESS LEADERS AND HIGHLIGHT SEVERAL COMPANIES THAT MEET THE PRESIDENT'S CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP CHALLENGES, to begin an important national dialogue on corporate citizenship.

• Working Breakfast, 8:30 a.m. at the White House with members of the Clinton Economic Team and more than 100 business leaders.

• Roundtable Discussion, 11:05 a.m. at Georgetown University with two panels with businesses leaders whose companies each highlight one of the President's Corporate Citizenship Challenges.

  Panel 1: Discussion and examples of meeting Corporate Citizenship Challenges 1, 2, and 3.
  Panel 2: Discussion and examples of meeting Corporate Citizenship Challenges 4 and 5.