About 2,000 Kroger employees in North Carolina will have money deducted from their paychecks for health insurance coverage for the first time ever under a new contract ratified by union members.

However, the contributions for full-time employees -- which range from $5 a month to $15 a month -- don't kick in until Aug. 1, 2009, for current employees. New hires will start contributing to their health insurance coverage beginning Aug. 1, 2007.

The Ohio-based grocery chain also had proposed a $100-a-month health insurance fee for spouses who were entitled to coverage through their jobs but chose their spouses' plan instead. But that didn't make it into the contract.

Health care coverage was the key issue during negotiations between the union and management. Kroger employees have been making co-payments for prescriptions and visits to doctors, but no health insurance expenses have been deducted from their paychecks.

Jim Papian, a spokesman for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 204, said workers also obtained some improvements in benefits. They included improvements in life insurance coverage, preventive care, vision coverage and the maximum amount of hospital care covered.

Workers will receive wage increases in each year of the four-year contract, Papian said. He declined to discuss details, as did Kroger.

Union members voted overwhelmingly to approve the contract in a vote taken Tuesday and Wednesday. Ratification was announced Thursday.

Clerks and department heads at the state's 19 Kroger stores -- 18 in the Triangle and one in Greenville -- had been working without a contract since July 20, raising the possibility of a strike.

"They took a strike authorization vote," said Papian. "That is as close as you can get. Everyone is delighted that it didn't go that far."

Tension between supermarket chains and workers is rising nationwide as grocers seek to trim costs in response to increased price competition, led by Wal-Mart, the nation's No. 1 grocer. But Kroger, the second-largest supermarket chain nationwide, is the only major grocer in the Triangle whose employees are represented by a union.

The union says it represents about 1,000 workers, while Kroger puts the number at 700. But the contract covers about 2,000 Kroger workers, regardless of whether they are union members.

Pete Williams, president of Kroger's mid-Atlantic division, issued a statement regarding the pact: "Our associates have played a major role in our growth, and they are being rewarded with good wages and affordable benefits."

The supermarket chain said the terms of the contract are similar to deals struck recently by other Kroger divisions.

Williams' statement also said that Kroger expects to make "a significant investment in the Raleigh-Durham market by remodeling stores and building new stores over the next four years."

Kroger spokesman John Lambert said details of those plans are still being worked out.

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