Some area Safeway employees are sporting buttons with their uniforms lately that have nothing to do with product promotions or sales events.

They say, “I’m Prepared to Protect My Heath Benefits.”

The buttons are a reference to ongoing contract negations between Safeway and United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1496, which covers all union Alaska Safeway stores. UFCW Local 1496 are currently negotiating a contract for Anchorage-area stores, and it’s generally figured that whatever shakes out in that contract will extend to union stores in other areas of the state. The message isn’t a threat to strike, said Pete Boehlen, president of the union. Rather, the buttons are a way to raise awareness.

“A strike is always the last, last resort. There’s really not a winner in a strike,” Boehlen said from his office in Anchorage. “The whole significance of the buttons is to have our members recognize and keep in mind that this is important to us, but also to have the community see that this is important to us.”

Negotiations have been ongoing since May, with the union and corporate bargaining representatives meeting about once a month.

“We’re getting down to the point where economics are at the forefront,” Boehlen said. “You know, wages and benefits.”

He said the union’s biggest issue with Safeway’s proposal is a move to impact health insurance benefits for new hires, extending the time it would take for them to get health coverage. Three contracts ago, employees got full family coverage after four months working. Today, employees can qualify for health coverage for themselves after seven months. In another 18 months the employee’s family can get health insurance coverage, and it takes about five years to qualify for full-family coverage that includes vision and dental benefits, Boehlen has said.

The union’s stance is that these changes are a slippery slope.

“In a nutshell, Safeway is looking to contain costs and is looking — or have proposed, at least — at benefit changes that would affect primarily new-hire people, which would result in a benefit decrease. And as these things go, unfortunately, if something gets in today that, let’s just say affects new hires, three years down the road you’ll see that same proposal that will be affecting everybody,” Boehlen said. “It’s kind of like taxes, you know. You bring them in at 1 percent, and the next thing you know it’s 2 percent, 3 percent, blah, blah, blah.”

Seattle-based Safeway spokeswoman Cherie Myers did not return a call seeking comment for this story.

“We’re just looking to provide good wages and benefits for our members,” Boehlen said. “Especially in this day and age of dwindling heathcare coverage. I mean, we all read in the paper every day how many X millions of people lose healthcare coverage every year. People who make decent wages and have decent benefits are a boon to the community.”

When a contract is agreed upon, it will likely last three years. However, when that might happen is anybody’s guess. Another round of talks was scheduled for Dec. 7, 8 and 9. Even though the previous contract expired in May, what’s important is getting the new one done right, not done fast, Boehlen said.

“I’ve been asked the question many times, you know, ‘Why is this taking so long?’ It’s taking so long because we are not in agreement with what the company wants to do,” he said. “So we can expedite the process, but that’s not what I’m interested in doing. What I’m interested in doing is getting the best settlement we can, knowing, again, that this isn’t just going to affect just the 10 stores in Anchorage, it’s going to affect stores all around the state.”

Boehlen said the union’s argument is that retail-sector jobs are not high-paying, but the trade-off is they provide decent benefits. Start tinkering with the benefits, even by a little bit, without a corresponding increase in pay, and it’s a double-whammy to employees.

“Retail is not a lucrative line of work to be in, for the most part. It’s not high-dollar. We’re not making a fortune working there, so the trade-off is you have good benefits at a relatively inexpensive price, so we want to maintain that,” he said. “You see the employers proposing cuts to the plan, but at the same time not proposing enough additional wage increases to make up the difference for costing you more. It’s not as if they’re offering pretty big raises. It unfortunately turns into a one-way street.”

The retail industry has changed incrementally in the last 10 to 12 years, including in Alaska, to the detriment of the employee, Boehlen said. He said his union employees haven’t had a serious wage increase for the last two contracts, covering seven years. There have been some bonus payments and two hard-wage increases of a quarter, but not what he would call substantial wage increases.

“We’re just looking for par wage increases,” he said. “The cost of living has gone up, everybody’s expenses are going up, company profits are good. Traditionally, in that kind of a climate, employees share in the prosperity. In today’s retail world, employers are just looking to contain costs. Unfortunately, it’s at the expense of the person working on the sales floor.”

Boehlen concedes that healthcare is a rising expense for employers, including Safeway, and that the retail industry is a competitive one, especially with a powerhouse like Wal-Mart extending its reach. But having a strong workforce with health insurance is a boon to communities, since it creates contributing residents who aren’t a burden to other taxpayers by needing social services like Medicaid or Denali KidCare.