Health-care benefits are the sticking point in contract negotiations between Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co. and about 3,700 unionized workers who are set to decide whether to strike Sunday night.

FILE 2005/Staff photoMechanics work on a F-35 Joint Strike Fighter at the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth. The fighter jet plant also builds the F-16 and the midsection of the F/A-22.

The disagreements included a Lockheed proposal to end insurance coverage in retirement for newly hired employees and an increase in health care premiums for current employees, from an average of about 10 percent to about 14 percent. Prescription costs and health-care co-payments also would climb for workers.

Wages were not as worrisome for the union. The company offered pay increases of 3 percent for the first and third year of the three-year contract with a 2.5 percent lump-sum payment in the second year. Union workers make as much as $26.49 an hour depending on their duties, experience and time with the company.

Lockheed also attempted to do it during the last round of contract talks in 2003 by excluding new hires from its traditional defined-benefit pension plan. The union balked, and the idea was dropped.

"It's certainly not unusual for a new hire to find access denied to defined-benefit pensions and substantial health care benefits," said labor historian Peter Rachleff, a professor at Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn.

"Whether it's the auto industry or the airlines, public transit workers or defense production, there is great pressure on workers to pay a larger share on health care costs, to make concessions on pensions and give up benefits on retirees and give up benefits on new hires. That's going on throughout the economy and has been for more than a decade," he said.

Mr. Rachleff said that Caterpillar Inc.'s last contract created two tiers of wages for current workers and new employees. Also, at auto-parts maker Delphi Corp., the proposal is to cut wages for new hires.

Lockheed and the Machinists union haven't seen eye to eye in recent negotiations. The union went on strike in 2000 and 2003 rather than accept the last two contracts. There have been four strikes at the Fort Worth plant.

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