ANDOVER, Mass. — Employees at one of the country’s largest defense technology and innovation companies are making their voices heard in hopes of securing the benefits they believe they deserve ahead of an important deadline this weekend.

Raytheon production employees, whose contract is due to expire Saturday morning, are demanding better medical coverage from the prominent missile manufacturer.

They also want better wages and less outsourcing of work to non-union locations, according to Mike Zagami, business agent and chief negotiator for Local 1505 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — the union that represents about 2,000 employees at the Andover, Marlborough, Billerica, Waltham, Woburn and Tewksbury, Massachusetts, plants.

Though Raytheon in based in Waltham, roughly half of those employees work in Andover, Zagami said. A major producer of missiles for the U.S. armed forces, Raytheon employs 63,000 people worldwide, according to the company’s website.

Hundreds of Raytheon workers participated in an informational picket at the company’s Andover plant Tuesday. They carried signs that urged the company to share more of its wealth with the workers.

At least one sign had this message: “Raytheon is making billions, but the workers are paying thousands in health care costs.”

“We are currently in labor agreement negotiations with the IBEW Local 1505, which represents about 2,000 employees involved in manufacturing operations in the Northeast area. The current agreement expires Sept. 23, 2017,” Raytheon said in a statement to The North Andover, Massachusetts Eagle-Tribune.

Zagami and his team were negotiating with representatives of Raytheon for much of Tuesday. During a break from the talks, Zagami told The Eagle-Tribune some of his members are paying as much as $8,000 per year in medical costs — and that is over and above what they pay in health insurance premiums, he said.

“That’s a big hit on a family,” he said. The average Raytheon worker makes $22 to $25 per hour, according to Zagami.

The picketing and demand for better benefits comes at a time where a number of companies nationwide are dealing with similar protests and negotiations surrounding wages and conditions workers find unfair or unsuitable — with affordable health care topping the list.

The picketing in Andover also comes less than a week after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., proposed a “Medicare for all” plan to develop affordable, single-payer health care for Americans.

Entry-level workers at Raytheon make about $14 per hour, less than the $15 per hour minimum wage that some activists have proposed for Massachusetts, Zagami pointed out.

“The company is in a very good position,” he said, noting Raytheon stock is selling for close to $200 per share. The company can afford to give its workers better medical coverage, he said.

Outsourcing — sending work to non-union Raytheon sites in New Hampshire and other states — is “getting worse and worse,” according to Zagami. The union wants “solid language” in the next contract that will keep this practice under control, he said.

Zagami said wages at Raytheon have not kept up with inflation. Recent pay hikes have amounted to around 2.5 percent or 2.6 percent, he said.

People who work on “sophisticated weapon systems” should not be paid less than $15 per hour in some cases, he said.

The union has reached out to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who supports the workers’ demands for better benefits and pay, according to Zagami.

IBEW Local 1505 is the largest bargaining unit in the Raytheon company, Zagami said.

Tennant writes for the North Andover, Massachusetts Eagle-Tribune.