Around 20 members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) and the Harvard Prisoner Education Program joined forces to march against dining hall employee outsourcing at Harvard's law, business and education schools yesterday.

Sodexho Marriot Services (SMS) provides workers for dining services at all three schools. Subcontracted workers generally receive lower wages and fewer benefits than regular Harvard employees.

PSLM objects to the company's treatment of its workers, while the Harvard Prisoner Education Program protested SMS' investments in for-profit prison labor as part of this week's "Prisons in America" conference.

Students bearing signs with slogans such as "Get my tuition out of Marriot" and "Harvard + Sodexho = Private Prisons" marched from the Science Center to Mass. Hall and then to the Kennedy School of Government (KSG), seeking support for their cause.

Justin P. Steil '00, a member of the Prisoner Education Program, said he opposes Harvard's contracting to SMS because it is the leading investor in the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) which employs prison labor for profit.

"The idea of for-profit prisons is a hypocrisy of American democracy because the incentive is to keep people in prisons longer," he said. "The fact that Harvard invests in that is unjust."

Students said they hope yesterday's march helped others realize what SMS's connection to Harvard means for the University.

"There is a great deal about Marriott to detest: not just its involvement with for-profit prisons, but its own truly despicable record of labor abuses and violations," wrote PSLM member Benjamin L. McKean '02 in an e-mail message. "We are happy to bring attention to such a target."