Last week’s Bargaining for the Common Good in Higher Education gathering at Rutgers University drew 200 organizers from unions, community organizations, and student groups from over 50 public and private colleges and universities. Over the course of three days, they coordinated plans to join together to make institutions of higher education just workplaces for employees and faculty, as well as improve the communities that surround them.

The gathering was hosted by the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization at Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations with support from the American Federation of Teachers (AFT),  National Education Association (NEA), Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Communication Workers of America (CWA), the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP)-AFT at Rutgers, the Part-Time Lecturer Faculty Chapter (PTLFC)-AAUP-AFT at Rutgers, the Action Race on the Economy, and the Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor (KI) at Georgetown University.

The gathering coincided with United Students Against Sweatshops’ (USAS) 21st Annual Conference that was also held at Rutgers. On the second day, attendees from both gatherings united for a powerful session on the financialization of higher education and a rally led by students in support of a $15 campus minimum wage and just contracts for unionized staff and faculty. It was a follow up to another gathering focused on Bargaining for Racial Justice held in the D.C. area last spring.

Scroll down to see photos from the gathering, and check out some of the highlights and best quotes from the gathering on Twitter. Our friends at AFT also prepared a wonderful recap of the conference.