Workers had requested starting wages of $14, while, at the close of Tuesday’s meetings, Harvard’s latest offer had been a base wage of $11.

Jones declined to specify the amount of the e-mailed offer beyond saying that it was higher than the report’s recommendations. He said he would formally propose the new offer at tomorrow’s negotiations.

Panfil declined to comment on the latest offer because it has not yet been officially proposed at the bargaining table and the entire SEIU bargaining committee was not aware of its contents.

Jones said that in addition to the new wage proposal, Harvard was “intrigued” by the union’s health benefit proposal. The proposal would have Harvard contribute to a fund that would help workers’ pay their share of a health care fee.

“We believe it’s in the right direction, [but] we don’t want to agree to it until we know where we’re going with wages,” Jones said. “It’s an expensive proposition, and many of the proposals already agreed to are going to be expensive.”

He added that “it’s something that we think we may be able to live with.”

Complicating the negotiations is what Skomarovsky called a recent “escalation” in union tactics such as civil disobedience.

The Protest

Harvard would have officially proposed its new wage number last Tuesday, but the negotiations broke early because of a civil disobedience session scheduled by the union, Jones said.

Last week, PSLM members and janitors practiced blocking traffic in front of Au Bon Pain in what was billed as a prelude for a larger display of civil disobedience today.

A group of janitors and students have volunteered to be arrested after blocking traffic on Mass. Ave. at 4:45 p.m. today in Harvard Square, while others plan to rally outside of the Holyoke Center.

Skomarovsky said organizers want to “send a message that workers and students don’t see negotiations as a game.”

In addition to last Tuesday’s protest, about 20 students entered Mass. Hall Thursday afternoon for a 15-minute “teach-in.”

Jones, though, said such tactics were unproductive and were more of a publicity stunt than an effective way to influence the negotiations.

“I think that the action being proposed [today], in which people have been recruited to be arrested, is way over the top,” he said. “I can’t imagine why the union is proposing this action, other than for the union itself to get attention. I believe it has little impact on the workers.”