A strike by Harvard University food service workers continued for a second day Friday with no end immediately in sight. 

Members of Boston’s Local 26 union picketed ahead of an afternoon negotiating session. Workers, who earn around $34,000 per year, are calling for higher wages. The university says it offered an average increase up to more than $24 an hour, but both sides continue to negotiate over raises and health care contributions, which have become a central sticking point for the union. 

Manny Amaral, a Harvard cook for 22 years, said that it was health care costs that moved him and many of his fellow workers to vote to strike. 

"Every time I look around, they’re building more buildings, and they’ve got more money than we can ever imagine," Amaral said. "And they tell us, we don’t care about you, health care isn’t important to us for you guys—for us it’s important but for you we don’t care."

A Harvard spokesperson says that most dining halls remain open and that managers and other university employees have been filling in while the strike continues.

Local 26 president Brian Lang, reached by phone Friday evening, said that the afternoon negotiations hadn't been satisfactory and that both sides were planning to meet again for negotiations tomorrow.