:action tag in jsp: Corresponding action class does NOT get the attributes from its including jsp's action.

I was using struts 2.1.8.1 and EVERYTHING was working fine. ON friday Sept 10, I downloaded and installed struts 2.2.1 and found that the <s:action tag is NO LONGER working the way it was working in struts 2.1.8. Here is the problem:
I have a search form, press submit > goes to editActivityReports.action ( initializes business objects like activityReport, etc ) > goes to corresponding JSP
in this JSP I include <s:action name="loadBriefings" executeResult="true" /> > goes to loadBriefings.action in here I declared private ActivityReport activityReport with getter and setter methods; This object was already created by editActivityReports.action, so when I use struts 2.1.8.1 and got to this point the object was passed and populated with its data. Now with struts 2.2.1 the Object IS NULL. I am assuming this is a bug, because it works with struts 2..1.8.1 and it DOES NOT WORK with struts 2.2.1. Problem is that I have two other applications for which I'm having the same problem .