The United Auto Workers announced after midnight on Monday morning that its members are to strike at 11 a.m. Monday morning, all across the nation. The UAW issued the press release announcing the strike at 1:40 a.m. on Monday, but continued to negotiate with General Motors Corp. through the night. However, the automaker failed to meet the union's demands and the UAW carried on with the strike as announced.

Finally, after two days of strike, the UAW announced an agreement early Wednesday, at around 3 a.m. The United Auto Workers announced that if the contract was not ratified (probably today), workers could return to picket lines.

"There’s no question this was one of the most complex and difficult bargaining sessions in the history of the GM/UAW relationship," Rick Wagoner, GM’s chief executive, said in a statement. The contract to be signed expires in 2011, and UAW president Ron Gettelfinger guaranteed union members that the new contract "will absolutely protect their jobs and keep jobs from being reduced."

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said that the automaker's voluntary employee beneficiary association (VEBA) was not the main reason behind the strike. It was rather General Motors's failure to protect the job security of 73,000 union-represented workers, Gettelfinger said. "You can be pushed off a cliff and that's what happened here," Gettelfinger said. "We were pushed into a strike and that's where we're at," Gettelfinger told the press.

Thus, Monday marks the first nationwide strike during auto contract negotiations since 1976, but the UAW has struck GM in 1998 at two parts plants for 54 days, costing the automaker $2.2 billion. UAW members were reportedly handing out picket signs to workers that say: "UAW On Strike." The automaker is believed to have about a 65-day supply of cars and trucks.

"We’re shocked and disappointed that General Motors has failed to recognize and appreciate what our membership has contributed during the past four years," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said before the strike. "Since 2003, our members have made extraordinary efforts every time the company came to us with a problem: the corporate restructuring, the attrition plan, the Delphi bankruptcy, the 2005 health care agreement. In every case, our members went the extra mile to find reasonable solutions."

The United Auto Workers' contract with General Motors Corp. was to expire on Sept 14 but was since extended pending the negotiations. The UAW has singled out, for now, GM, but there are also contracts which need to be resigned with Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC. The remaining two companies will also have to establish similar VEBA trusts, as the three companies have health care liabilities totaling nearly $100 billion.

GM has failed to reach an agreement regarding the voluntary employee beneficiary association, or VEBA (a retiree health-care trust). GM wants the independent trust to relieve it of health-care commitments. The VEBA would have, in addition, oversight from UAW. General Motors Corp. has allegedly threatened that it would have to outsource some of its production facilities if it is to fail in creating the VEBA, and UAW has asked in return for the automaker agree to job security issues, which would guarantee that the company will continue to manufacture future products in the United States.