The rally included a small number of Harvard employees, one day after hundreds of dining hall workers crowded into Mass. Ave after a union meeting Wednesday night called to support the students occupying the administrative building.

A janitor, wearing his Harvard work jacket, spoke briefly yesterday, calling for the administration to negotiate with the students continuing to occupy Mass. Hall.

"We all have something else to do," he said. "I need to go to work and these kids need to go to class and see their families. It's time to negotiate now."

The janitor's voice joined a chorus of union members supporting the cause yesterday.

Andy Stern, the president of the SEIU International Union called Offner on his cell phone during the rally to endorse the sit-in and thanked the students for "speaking out against injustice."

Stern and the rest of the AFL-CIO executive board plan to travel to the Yard next week to show their support for the ongoing sit-in, Offner said.

"It would be smart for [the University] to negotiate now and fix this before {AFL-CIO President} John Sweeney gets arrested in front of Mass. Hall," Offner yelled to the crowd.