UAW workers make their way to the picket line during the first national strike against GM since 2007

DETROIT / WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United Auto Workers (UAW) went on strike at General Motors just after midnight Sunday and about 48,000 workers at the time in its facilities are heading to the pickets strike this morning, union officials said Monday.

Labor contract talks in the US were deadlocked on Sunday, and the UAW called for GM's first national strike for 12 years.

"We do not take this lightly," said Sunday Terry Dittes, vice president of the UAW responsible for relations between GM and the union, at a press conference in downtown Detroit .

"It's our last resort."

GM said in a statement that its offer to the UAW during the negotiations included more than $ 7 billion in new investments, 5,400 jobs – a majority of which would be new – salary increases, improved benefits and a $ 8,000 contract ratification bonus.

"We negotiated in good faith and with a sense of urgency," said the builder.

Late in the evening of Sunday, US President Donald Trump on Twitter urged UAW and GM to "come together and make a deal!". GM spokesman Tony Cervone said the builder "could not be more in agreement" with Trump's call.

A strike will very quickly shut down GM's operations in North America and could harm the US economy as a whole. Prolonged class action would also cause hardship for GM's hourly workers with significantly reduced strike pay.

GM's last employees made a brief two-day strike in 2007 during contract negotiations. A more painful strike took place in Flint, Michigan in 1998; it lasted 54 days and cost the American automaker number one more than $ 2 billion.

No further talks were scheduled before the strike began, said a spokesman for the union and GM.

Discussions are scheduled to resume Monday at 10:00 am Eastern Time (14:00 GMT).

The union has been fighting to prevent GM from closing auto assembly plants in Ohio and Michigan, and argued that workers deserve higher pay after years of record profits for GM in North America.

GM says factory closures are necessary responses to market developments and that UAW wages and benefits are expensive compared to competing non-union auto plants in southern US states . In its statement, the automaker said its offer to the union included solutions for assembly plants in Michigan and Ohio currently lacking products.

A person familiar with GM's offer said it could include the production of a future electric vehicle in Detroit.

It could also include converting a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, into an electric vehicle battery manufacturing plant, or selling the plant's sale project to a group affiliated with the electric vehicle start-up. , Workhorse Group Inc.

A new battery plant could give some UAW employees in Lordstown the opportunity to stay with GM.

The closure of Lordstown has been widely criticized, including by Trump, who met with GM Executive Director Mary Barra on September 5 in Trump's bid for the 2020 re-election.

But several Democratic presidential candidates have declared support for the UAW, including Senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, former Vice President Joe Biden and Representative Tim Ryan.

Sanders said GM received a $ 50 billion bailout funded by US taxpayers 10 years ago. "Our message to General Motors is simple: end greed, sit down with the UAW and come up with an agreement that treats your workers with the respect and dignity they deserve," said Sanders in a statement.

Biden said on Twitter that he supports the UAW's demand for "fair wages and benefits for its members, American workers deserve better."

The union presented the plant closures as a betrayal of workers who made concessions in 2009 to help GM through its government-led bankruptcy.

"General Motors must understand that we defended GM when they needed us," Ted Krumm, chairman of the union's bargaining committee during discussions with GM, told the press conference on Sunday. It's a profitable period … and we deserve a fair deal. "

According to the UAW, significant differences remain between the two parties with respect to wages, health care benefits, temporary employees, job security and benefit sharing.

The strike will test the union and GM, while the US auto industry is facing slowing sales and increased costs of launching electric vehicles and reducing emissions.

Kristin Dziczek, vice president of industry, labor and economics at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR) based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, said the strike at GM's US plants would also close its plants in Canada and Mexico, the integrated builder supply chain.

"It's going to have a big impact on the economy," she said.

GM begins the strike with healthy stocks of some of its major high-margin vehicles.

As of September 1, the automaker had its Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck for 96 days, its Chevrolet Equinox SUV for 59 days and the Cadillac Escalade for over 100 days.

If the strike is short, hourly workers should not suffer too much. But the strike pay provided by the UAW, which constituted reserves in anticipation of possible industrial action, is only $ 250 a week.

The manufacturer has 12 vehicle assembly plants, 12 engine and powerplant facilities, and a handful of other stamping plants and other facilities in the United States.

On Friday, UAW announced temporary contract extensions with Ford Motor Co and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA), while it was focusing on GM.

The union targeted GM as the first automaker with which it wanted to enter into contractual negotiations.

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which carries certain GM vehicles to dealerships, has announced that it will honor UAW's GM Picket Lines.