MIAMI -- About 20 University of Miami students ended a more than 12-hour sit-in on the Coral Gables campus early Wednesday after university officials agreed to several demands regarding campus janitors who are striking.

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University officials said they will hold a meeting within 48 hours with representatives from different labor, student and faculty groups to discuss whether Unicco Service Co. employees want the option to have union representation.

"It's an issue between the University of Miami and Unicco," said demonstrator Shelly Stromoski. "Both have a right to make change legally. Neither of them have put that step forward to unionize."

Jacob Coker-Dukowitz, a 22-year-old junior from Miami, was one of the students who began the sit-in at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday. He said when the university issued the statement, about 100 supporters broke out in cheers and were hugging and crying.

"We take this as an effort of good faith by the University of Miami that these parties will sit down, "Coker-Dukowitz. "This is not the end. This is not over, but we feel this is the right step forward."

University of Miami President Donna Shalala spoke with some of the demonstrators.

"What's most important here is the right of the workers to exercise their freedom in this country, their right to vote for or against a union. We support that right," Shalala said.

Some janitors employed by Unicco have been striking for nearly a month. The university has raised the minimum wages for those janitors and other contract employees, but the workers are continuing to strike for union representation and health care benefits.

"We're opposed to the way Unicco is behaving here," said Service Employees' International Union representative Robin Schuler. "It's not about anything but these people getting decent treatment and not being fired for voicing their opinion."

Meanwhile at a separate protest Tuesday, 17 South Florida clergy members and workers were arrested after blocking a nearby Coral Gables intersection, according to police. Each was charged with obstructing a highway and released, police said.

Both protests were organized by "outsiders, union activists wrongly portraying themselves as the voices of our workers," Unicco spokesman Doug Bailey said.

SEIU leaders misled the students about alleged intimidation of workers, Bailey said.

"The union is telling the strikers they'll be fired if they don't come back to work. That's illegal, and we couldn't if we wanted to," he said.

The union did not organize the students' sit-in, but supports their efforts, said SEIU spokeswoman Renee Asher.

"It's an incredible step forward. Now we just have to make it happen," Asher said.