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In the biting cold, roughly 80 local affiliates called on Harvard to increase its wage offers to custodians in a Monday rally outside University Hall.

32BJ Service Employees International Union, which represents campus custodians, has been bargaining with the University since early October — but negotiations quickly stalled over wages. After Harvard proposed 2.7 percent average annual increases across a five-year contract in response to a 5.1 percent average yearly increase proposed by the union last week, the two parties agreed to enter federal mediation to resolve the deadlock.

Several local politicians spoke at the Monday rally, ramping up pressure on Harvard as bargaining continues. State Rep. Marjorie C. Decker said Harvard’s institutional resources uniquely position it to support its workers.

“If there’s any university that can actually solve the answer to reducing poverty and model it, it’s Harvard University,” Decker said.

Cambridge city councilor Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80 and councilor-elect Ayah Al-Zubi ’23, who also appeared at the custodians’ strike last month, echoed Decker’s message — reiterating that the Council’s support for Harvard depends on the University’s commitment to its employees.

“We will stand with the University, but we will not stand with the way that they’re treating our workers,” Al-Zubi said.

Under their current contract, 32BJ custodians are paid between $28.00 and $30.68 an hour, depending on their job title and seniority.

Harvard spokesperson Jason A. Newton declined to comment on the rally, instead referring The Crimson to a statement provided after the two parties agreed to enter federal mediation.

“The University deeply values our custodial team and the essential work they do,” he wrote, pointing to Harvard’s offer of $2,000 in bonuses upon ratification and wage increases above 3 percent in later years of the proposed five-year agreement.

“We believe this is a competitive offer that recognizes the value of our custodial team amid a time when other employees have not received increases,” he added.

Harvard Law School professors Sharon Block and Benjamin I. Sachs, who serve as faculty directors of HLS’s Center for Labor and a Just Economy, backed workers’ efforts in a union press release.

“As the holidays approach, it is time for the University to reach an agreement that includes wage increases that allow these workers to support their families during this time of high inflation, that includes protection for health benefits when the public health safety net is under enormous strain, and that enables all workers to afford legal representation when they need it,” Block and Sachs wrote.

Campus security guards, also represented by 32BJ, have also been bargaining with third-party contractor Securitas since October. The outcome of their negotiations depends heavily on the custodians’ contract, 32BJ janitorial division director Elena Lavarreda said at the rally.

A union official, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive negotiations, added that Securitas’s offer is “virtually identical” to Harvard’s at this point — a five-year agreement with wage increases at or exceeding 3 percent in later years of the contract.

“This is all on Harvard at this point,” Lavarreda said at the rally.

Securitas did not respond to a request for comment on its offer to security workers.

The protest opened and closed with music. Led by self-described “protest chorus” Boston Voices of Community and Labor, rallygoers sang along to a union-themed rendition of the holiday song “Angels We Have Heard on High.” While festive, the message to Harvard was clear.

“We’ll be back,” rallygoers chanted at the demonstration’s close.

The two parties will return to the table for their first mediated session on Dec. 15.

—Staff writer Hugo C. Chiasson can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @HugoChiassonn.

—Staff writer Amann S. Mahajan can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on X @amannmahajan.