It’s happening. From The New York Times:

Members of the United Automobile Workers union walked off the job today at General Motors plants across the country after union leaders and company officials failed to reach an agreement in contentious talks on a new contract.

It is the first national strike by the union against G.M. since 1970. That strike lasted for two months. The U.A.W. last struck G.M. at two plants in Flint, Mich., in 1998, in a strike that went on for seven weeks.

The union’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, said the union would go back to the bargaining table today. “This is nothing we wanted,” he said. “Nobody wins in a strike.”

The two sides apparently hit a stalemate over the union’s demand for job protection for its work force at G.M., which is one-fifth its size in 1990. G.M., in return, had pushed for the creation of a trust that would assume responsibility for its $55 billion liability for health care benefits for workers, retirees and their families.