WHEELING — If the bargaining committee of a union representing 1,200 workers at 11 area Kroger stores has its way, union members will turn down the company’s most recent — and final — contract offer.

But a union official said he is concerned that if workers do not approve the deal, Kroger might pull the plug on stores in the Upper Ohio Valley.

“I think a strike would be very dicey,” said Tony Helfer, director of the western division for United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 1776 KS. “What are you going to go on strike for, another dime?”

Members of the union will meet Sunday at the Wheeling Island Hotel, Casino, Racetrack for two informational meetings about Kroger’s third offer since the union’s contract with the company expired Aug. 4. Those workers, who remain employed after multiple contract extensions, will then vote next week to accept the contract or not. Helfer said a vote against the contract is a vote to strike.

“We’re going to review (the contract) and answer any questions our members might have,” he said.

Members then will vote in their respective stores through the week. Those stores include Steubenville, Wintersville, two in Weirton, Wellsburg, two in Wheeling and one each in Martins Ferry, St. Clairsville, Bellaire and Moundsville. They must vote off the clock, and will do so in a back room where they cannot be seen on camera, Helfer said.

The last of the members to cast their votes will do so Oct. 26 at the store on Mount de Chantal Road in Wheeling. Helfer said the union should know by 7 p.m. that day if its members have voted to strike.

If that happens, he said the union most likely would notify corporate officials of its members’ decision on Oct. 29. Because the union is required to give a 72-hour strike notice, the earliest Kroger workers here might walk off the job is midnight Nov. 2.

Workers last rejected a contract offer 3-1 during a Sept. 8 vote. Helfer said Thursday it would be premature to speculate how the union members might vote this time.

“Members are looking at this a little more cautiously,” he said. “I don’t see quite the aggression as I saw previously.”

But the bargaining committee doesn’t favor the latest offer. The committee — made up of two members of the union’s executive board and four members elected by the union at large — believes the company isn’t going far enough, Helfer said.

“They still feel too many of the workers are on public assistance,” he said. “Everybody is raising rates so much, and everybody is saying, ‘Why won’t Kroger?’ Workers are starting to get angry.”

Helfer declined to comment on the specifics of the most recent contract offer. Amy McCormick, corporate affairs manager with the division that covers stores in central and northwest Ohio as well as West Virginia, did not respond specifically to an e-mailed inquiry asking for contract details.

However, McCormick did issue a general statement Thursday evening. “Kroger Columbus Division is currently in negotiations with UFCW Local 1776 KS and recently provided an offer to the union bargaining committee,” wrote McCormick in her e-mail. “Our goal with every negotiation is to provide our associates a competitive compensation package of wages and benefits. We are hopeful that the contract will be ratified.”

In the past, the union has said pay and the cost of health insurance remain the biggest issues of contention.

One of the arguments Helfer said he has heard in favor of the strike is that it could paralyze a major grocery store just before the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons, which could force the company into a position of having to negotiate. He also said members believe there is strong support for workers in the historically industrial Ohio Valley.

But Helfer acknowledged that might not be the case.

“Whether the community supports strikers is yet to be seen,” he said.

Even if the community does support the strikers, he said he believes the offer — which he said is more generous than those in the past — is the last the union will get from the company.

“I don’t see how we can take on this major company,” Helfer said. “They could close the stores if they want to.”