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The UAW, employing a new strategy in heated talks with the “Big Three� automakers this year, called on one major plant from each of the companies — GM, Ford and Stellantis — to strike after the carmakers failed to reach contract agreements by the Thursday night deadline.

By Friday morning, Wentzville workers had taken to the picket line. Some said they viewed the union’s demands as needed recompense for concessions given up during the Great Recession.

“At one time, UAW workers had it all,� said Leslie Savage, a Wentzville line worker of 10 years. “It’s not about what we’re trying to get, it’s what we’re trying to get back.�

In total, the UAW on Friday called on 12,700 workers to walk out at three plants: a Ford factory in Michigan, a Stellantis assembly plant in Ohio, and GM’s Wentzville plant. The strike is aimed at halting production of the Ford Bronco, Jeep Wrangler and Chevrolet Colorado, along with other popular models. It is, analysts said, one of the most ambitious actions in decades by industrial labor.

And it makes the Wentzville site, the first GM plant to walk out, a test case for UAW President Shawn Fain’s new strategy in negotiations.

For decades, when labor agreements approached their expirations, the UAW focused on bargaining with one company, and used its agreement as a template for the others.

In 2019, when negotiations with GM stalled, the UAW called for a strike with GM workers alone, while Ford and Fiat Chrysler employees continued working under contract extensions.

This year, the UAW put the companies on notice that the union would strike against any that didn’t have a deal in place by the deadline.

And depending on how much progress is made in negotiations, other plants may also go on strike. Other union locals have been told to stay constantly prepared, in case they are called on to walk out.

“All options remain on the table,� Fain said in calling the strike Thursday night.

It’s the second strike in four years at the GM plant in Wentzville, though negotiations this year starkly contrast with 2019. At that time, GM was in the midst of a series of plant closures. In places like Wentzville, some workers had just relocated hundreds of miles from the shuttered site in Lordstown, Ohio, and were eager for assurances of job security.

Now, the automotive industry is undergoing profound shifts. Carmakers are making massive investments in their electric vehicle segments, which are growing, but in some cases aren’t profitable yet. GM has pledged to sell only electric passenger vehicles by 2035. Stellantis is targeting 50% EV sales in the U.S. by the end of the decade, and 100% in Europe. Ford has publicized plans to spend $50 billion on EVs through 2026.

Fain, the UAW president, was elected earlier this year and has taken an aggressive approach to bargaining. The union went into talks with ambitious demands, initially proposing a 40% wage increase over the course of the four-year contract. GM’s latest offer, the details of it released Thursday, envisioned a 20% wage increase over the course of the contract.

The Wentzville plant is one of GM’s largest, its workforce exceeded by just a handful of sites. It employs 4,100 people — 3,700 of them represented by the UAW — and manufactures the Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, popular sellers for GM.

Some Wentzville workers were surprised Thursday night to learn their facility had been selected to strike. Some had wondered if the UAW would target the company’s larger plant in Arlington, Texas, or strike at smaller ones that supply parts to the larger sites.

Donald Sherman, a 77-year-old team leader at the plant, said he cares the most about union’s demands for retirement benefits and medical care — things that start to feel more important as one gets closer to retirement.

Sherman recalled the first time he went on strike, when he worked at a GM plant in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. Back then workers didn’t receive strike pay, he said. He and his wife couldn’t afford curtains for their new house, so they hung bedsheets over the windows with thumbtacks.

This time around is different. He applauded the union’s ambitious demands.

“Sometimes you’ve got to hit the pocket, to get to an understanding,� Sherman said.

UAW strike pay is $500 per week, but it doesn’t kick in immediately.

Meanwhile, effects of the strike were already spreading to other UAW plants.

Late Friday, General Motors sent a note to the 2,000 workers at the Fairfax Assembly plant in Kansas, north of Kansas City.

Wentzville provided parts to Fairfax, the note said, and parts were already running short.

And that meant no more work in Fairfax, too, GM told workers.

“We have said repeatedly that nobody wins in a strike,� GM said in a statement to the media. “And that effects go well beyond our employees on the plant floor.

“We will continue to bargain in good faith with the union to reach an agreement as quickly as possible,� the statement continued, “for the benefit of our team members, customers, suppliers and communities across the U.S.�

Reuters contributed this report.