Clinton to Put ‘Responsible’ Firms on Display

President Clinton, seeking to dramatize his concern for anxious workers without alienating the nation’s corporate elite, is planning a White House conference next week to display examples of good citizenship by private firms, officials said Thursday.

“We want to display some companies that exemplify the principles of corporate responsibility,” said an official involved in planning the meeting, which is expected to be announced today.

The conference, which will include a White House breakfast with Clinton for about a dozen corporate chief executives, represents a retreat from an idea suggested by Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich and some Democrats in Congress: legislation to give tax breaks to companies that treat their workers well.

“We’re not proposing any legislation,” a White House official said.

Administration officials had debated the tax-break idea earlier this year, after a wave of corporate layoffs--and the unexpected strength of populist candidate Patrick J. Buchanan in the Republican primary election in New Hampshire--focused national attention on the increasing economic anxiety of middle-class Americans.

But Clinton quickly decided he did not want to seek new regulations on corporate behavior. Instead, aides said, he elected to use the “bully pulpit” of his office to encourage companies to provide full medical benefits, flexible family-leave policies and other worker-friendly practices.

Among the companies that may be represented at next week’s meeting, one official said, are several from California that Clinton and Reich have praised in the past for their policies: Harman International Industries of Northridge, an audio equipment manufacturer; Rhino Records of Los Angeles, a record company; Zero Corp., a Los Angeles-based electrical equipment manufacturer; and Granite Rock, a building-supply firm in Watsonville.