SOUTH HADLEY — Leo Ortiz took to the microphone at a rally Tuesday afternoon to share how he supplements his income as a cook at Mount Holyoke College.

In addition to his full-time workweeks in the kitchen, Ortiz said, “I donate plasma twice a week to make ends meet ... and mow lawns.”

Dylan Russell, a father with two children, also works in the kitchen, and said that while he fortunately he hasn’t missed any bill payments, just the thought of it frequently rattles him.

“It’s not fun the thought of going under,” he said. “But those thoughts always get back in my head.”

Ortiz and Russell joined some two dozen others outside Field Gate, Mount Holyoke’s main entrance, to voice demands as contract negotiations between the Service Employees International Union and the college take place. The service workers and their supporters held two consecutive rallies to demand new contracts before the expiration of the current agreements on June 30.

Bargaining committees of workers and representatives from Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) have been negotiating since March with the college for agreements covering 170 custodians, tradespeople, groundskeepers and dining services workers. Union leaders said Mount Holyoke’s latest offer falls short of the union members’ needs.

Mount Holyoke spokesperson Christian Feuerstein said that the college is actively engaged in contract negotiations and cannot speak to specifics at this time.

“However, MHC leadership is confident that the administration and union bargaining teams will be able to work together in good faith to reach a just and sustainable result for all College employees,” Feuerstein said in a statement Wednesday morning.

Those present at the rallies were voicing their need for increased legal access, retirement savings benefits, and a living wage.

Kevin Brown, SEIU’s executive vice president, said that union’s new demands include access to a supplemental retirement savings program, contributions to its legal benefit fund that provides members free legal services for immigration issues or for buying a home or for marriage issues, and wage increases that are “trying to get people living wages so that they can sustain themselves.”

“These are all new for the college and they haven’t agreed to any of them,” said Brown, whose union covers Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Island with 20,000 members in the union.

According to Brown, a living wage is in the ballpark of $50,000 a year, according Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s living wage calculator. On average, he said, the union workers on campus are bringing home around $35,000.

“A lot of our members are trying to get by on $35,000, less than $40,000 a year, and in Hampshire County, you can’t do it,” said Brown.

He added that the union understands the financial pressures Mount Holyoke is facing from the federal government, having supported the college by forwarding signed petitions to Washington, D.C. against federal cuts. Despite these cuts, “now is not the time to take it out on the workers,” said Brown.

Russell was unable to pinpoint what for him would be “comfortable” so that he no longer worried about getting behind on his bills.

He said that, “Of all the people I talk to, people I know, that are making $30 an hour or more — they’ll say it’s still hard, but it’s a lot more comfortable than what we’re making now,” he said.

Monique Nelson, custodian of facilities, was there advocating for better wages.

“A lot of us are single, trying to maintain a household, you know, and we shouldn’t have to struggle and work two jobs just to pay bills,” she said. “We shouldn’t have to do that, you know?”

She would like to see long-term employees like herself receive more compensation.

“And another thing that we would love is some sort of recognition for longevity. I’ve been here for 30 years. There’s people who have been here 40. I think that we deserve some sort of recognition for being with the college and supporting the college,” she said.

Alan Metcalf, a cook, said he has “definitely” felt the impacts of prices going up, and a pay boost would allow him to keep up with the increased cost of living in Massachusetts.

In addition to workers, a handful of students also came out to advocate. Among them was Victoria Faulkner from the class of 2025. Faulkner began her address thanking the workers of the campus for their work.

Mount Holyoke is ranked among the most beautiful campuses in the country, and Faulkner thinks that groundskeepers deserve a pay that reflects the work they accomplish, as do the cooks and service workers throughout campus.

“I would like to say first off, thank you to everyone who has made every single day of the year, from the grounds to the dining workers,” Faulkner said. “I don’t see you because as a student, we are so fundamentally removed from the workers and from the workers’ struggles here at Mount Holyoke,” she said.

“I as a student manager in the library, who quite frankly does not do very much, was getting paid more than people in the dining hall who feed me, who provide me water, and provide meals that are quite frankly fancier than we deserve.”

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.