After six months, the Harvard Club of New York remains locked in a fierce labor battle with unionized employees.

While there have been recent talks between the club and the union, no settlement is near, union officials said yesterday.

The union claims that about 300 members have left the club, and hundreds more have withheld their dues. But Harvard representatives said the ongoing picketing has not affected University fundraising for the ongoing $2.1 billion capital campaign.

Since April 3, members of Hotel, Restaurant and Club Employees Union Local 6 have protested 24 hours a day in front of the club, located on West 44th Street in New York City. All 118 union members remain on strike, said John F. Turchiano, a spokesperson for the union.

The workers are protesting proposed changes in their contracts which would require them to pay for health care, which was formerly fully covered. They also stand to lose paid vacation and sick days.

Union employees are living "very precariously" on unemployment benefits and $200 per week in strike pay from the union, Turchiano said.

Edward F. Truettner, who has worked in the club as a waiter for about 10 years, said he could not afford to visit his aged mother, who is on dialysis, this summer.

But despite workers' hardships on the picket line, the union has no plans to give in.

"It may get to the point where the future of the club is threatened," Turchiano said. "Surely management must have realized that these workers are just as determined now as they were six months ago."

Officials of the club and the University, however, don't see much grounds for worry.

Although "business is down somewhat," the club has hired "temporary replacements" for the striking employees and continues to offer meals and fitness facilities and host events, said Charlotte P. Armstrong '49, a club vice president and Harvard overseer.

"The club is still very much being used by Harvard for fundraising," Armstrong said.

Capital campaign committees still meet at the club, and the Harvard College Fund holds events there, said William H. Boardman Jr., Harvard's director of capital giving. Boardman said he spent two days last week at the club and goes there regularly on business.

Big donors aren't likely to be affected by the strike, Albert F. Gordon '59, a major Harvard donor and fundraiser, said yesterday.

"Nearly all the dough comes from the top two or three percent," he said. "These people, a lot of them probably aren't even aware that there's a strike."