"I just returned from Davos and the inability of leaders of the business community to take responsibility was everywhere, and it was disappointing...Too many leaders tried to justify their own or companies behavior rather than admit that the system they promoted that had made them wealthy, while creating gross inequities, and economic calamities was flawed," wrote SEIU President Andy Stern last week on the Washington Post's "On Leadership" online forum.

Andy records a video in a workshop at the World Economic Forum in Davos. Flickr Photo © 2009 Robert Scoble

"It is no wonder that, in a workshop on restoring trust in corporations, in which I was a discussion leader, my suggestion that Davos participants could restore trust by condemning the bonuses of Wall Street companies that needed government investment [was not adopted].

"When Barack Obama raised his voice we saw what real leadership means. Is it any wonder that the public has less trust in big business than it had in President Bush when he left office?"

Stern recently returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he was a participant in two panels, "Renewing Trust in Corporations" and "Power to the People: Politics in the Internet Age."

In this YouTube clip recorded in Davos, Andy Stern discusses whether company executives should have a code of ethics. Watch it now: