DAVIE, Fla. -- A group of fired Nova Southeastern University janitors and their supporters protested outside the Davie campus Thursday, two days before the university holds commencement ceremonies.

The former janitors claim they were fired Feb. 19 after trying unsuccessfully for about a year to unionize. They worked for companies that contracted with the university to provide janitorial services.

"We hope that the general public understands that we're doing everything possible and that this is not an incident between SEIU (Service Employees International Union) and Nova Southeastern University, but between SEIU and the contractors that we've hired," said Dr. George Hanbury, executive vice-president of Nova Southeastern University.

But Rob Schuler, president of the local SEIU, disagreed.

"I mean, this is not a university functioning like a university is supposed to function -- you know, like fostering free thought," said Schuler.

To show just how they felt about the university, protestors displayed a giant inflatable rat near where they staged their demonstration.

"The workers voted for a union, UNICCO recognized their union and then (the university) got rid of UNICCO, and now 108 families are without income and they're out on the street," said local SEIU spokesman Hiram Ruiz.

Jobs With Justice -- a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve working people's standard of living, fight for job security and protect workers' right to organize, according to its Web site -- claims half of the former janitors are still unemployed.

Protestors want the university's contractors to hire the remaining unemployed janitors and grant them fair pay, access to affordable health care and the protection of a union contract.

The SEIU paid for a full-page advertisement in a local newspaper comparing Nova Southeastern to China and communist Cuba.

"For us to then finally take a bolder step to really paint this university the way that the administration is running it, I think, is actually quite called for," said Ruiz.

Hanbury, however, didn't see it that way.

"I think it's a deliberate strategy to try to discredit the university and the good things that we've done," he said.