Supporters of Harvard’s janitors union practice civil disobedience techniques in Harvard Square yesterday, in preparation for a protest scheduled for next week. The union is negotiating a new contract with Harvard.

As the fifth week of contract negotiations began, representatives of Harvard custodial workers’ union said talks with the University on wages and benefits were at a “stalemate” yesterday.

The talks are the first conducted since the Harvard Committee on Employment and Contracting Policies (HCECP) issued its report on Dec. 19 calling for wages to be set between $10.83 and $11.30 for the University’s lowest-paid workers. The report was largely adopted by University President Lawrence H. Summers last month.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 254, which represents Harvard janitors, has called for a higher wage than the figure offered in the HCECP report. SEIU asked for base wages beginning at $14 and increasing to $15.50 over the three years that will be covered by the new contract.

Harvard officials declined to comment yesterday when approached at the Sheraton Commander Hotel on Garden Street, where negotiations are being held every Tuesday.

David A. Jones, who directs the University’s Office of Labor and Employee Relations, recently said Harvard will not discuss specifics of the negotiations until they are complete.

According to union officials, though, Harvard negotiators, led by the Human Resources Office (HRO), initially proposed a starting wage of $10.85 and then upped the offer to $11. Custodial worker and SEIU representative Daniel Mejia called Harvard’s position “cheap.”

However, even Harvard’s initial offer would be a significant raise for the unions, since, according to the HCECP report, 89 percent of contracted custodial workers and 82 percent of Harvard custodial workers earned less than $10 an hour last year.

Although students have been allowed to watch the negotiations, officials barred a Crimson reporter from observing.

SEIU spokesperson Sylvia Panfil said that negotiations are proceeding slowly. Agreements have been reached on making seniority a factor in deciding promotions from part-time to full-time, and on creating a system for granting overtime requests, she said.

But she said the big sticking points remains wages and benefits. Currently, workers pay a fee for health care, and according to the HCECP report, 38 percent of Harvard’s custodial workers and 46 percent of sub-contracted custodial workers participated in health care plans in 2001.

Panfil said Harvard has made “no movement” in discussions about reducing health fees for in-house workers and requiring parity benefits for contracted workers, as recommended by the HCECP report.

She added that it was unlikely workers would agree to a contract that raised wages without improving benefits.

Although students reported in an op-ed in yesterday’s Crimson that Harvard negotiators had been “condescending” and “patronizing” during the negotiations, custodial workers disagreed with the characterization.

“So far, I think it has been pretty mild, [with] no hostility from either side,” said custodial worker Shakespeare Christmas, who has participated in the negotiations.

Panfil said there had been some tense moments in past weeks’ meetings, which have lasted late into the evening, but that the overall tone had been polite—despite the lack of progress.