UAW sets Sunday night strike deadline with GM

DETROIT — The UAW on Saturday set a deadline in its contract talks with General Motors of 11:50 p.m. ET on Sunday, at which point the union could call a strike if a tentative agreement has not been reached.

"Your UAW-GM bargaining team has served official notice to GM terminating the National Agreement and Salaried Master Agreement effective at 11:59 p.m. Sunday October 25," the union said in a Facebook posting to the membership about 3 p.m. on Saturday.

The UAW's decision to set the deadline comes two days after it resumed high-level discussions with the automaker.

It is not unusual for the UAW to set a strike deadline as contract discussions go down to the wire. The UAW set a one-day strike deadline earlier this month during negotiations with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. A tentative agreement was reached less than 20 minutes before the deadline was set to expire.

GM is the second of the Detroit Three automakers to negotiate a new deal. The UAW reached its second tentative agreement with FCA on Oct. 7 after a previous pact was voted down by workers. The second deal was ratified and the results made official Thursday.

The UAW is not expected to start final negotiations with Ford until the GM agreement is ratified.