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CWA activists were part of a big crowd that stood up to Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiators this week, demanding more transparency and openness in what could be the biggest free trade agreement in the world.

Two months ago, CWA Local 6355 President Bradley Harmon was one of the tens of thousands of Americans who gathered in houses of worship, college dorms, living rooms and union halls to learn about the a new movement called the 99 Percent Spring. At the day-long training, he studied the roots of the nation?s economic crisis. He learned how to design a non-violent, direct action.

This spring, there were incredible demonstrations against corporate greed at shareholder meetings and corporate offices from coast to coast. Fresh out of 99 Percent Spring training, workers, veterans, families facing foreclosure, retirees who lost their pensions, students and immigrants stood up to the CEOs and top executives of major American corporations in a series of coordinated actions across the country. Activists are holding the 1 percent responsible not only for the nation?s shaky economy, but for our broken democracy, which allows corporations to call all the shots. Here are some highlights:

Jobs With Justice ? United Auto Workers ? National Peoples Action ? National Domestic Workers Alliance ? MoveOn.org ? New Organizing Institute ? Movement Strategy Center ? The Other 98% ? Service Employees International Union ? AFL-CIO ? Rebuild the Dream ? Color of Change ? UNITE-HERE ?

The age of inequality has coincided with a dramatic decline in the power of organized labor. Union membership in the United States reached its historic peak in 1979 at about 21 million, representing about 21 percent of the workforce. Today membership stands at about 15 million and represents about 12 percent. When you exclude public-employee unions (more than half of all union members today work not for a private company but for the government), union membership has dropped to about 7 percent of the private-sector workforce.