John Hammond via UAW.com

Gary Wilson of UAW Local 22, Hamtramck, Mich., assembles picket signs in preparation for a strike at General Motors.

UAW workers went on strike against General Motors over job security, economic issues, benefits for active workers and winning investment in future products, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said Monday at a news conference at Solidarity House.

"We stand ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week to go back to the bargaining table," Gettelfinger, flanked by the UAW GM National Negotiating Committee.

Pickets will remain outside plants until a contract is reached, he said before heading back to the bargaining table with UAW Vice President Cal Rapson, who directs the union's GM Department, and the national committee.

Gettelfinger said it was significant that our union gave GM a nine-day contract extension, the longest in UAW history to avoid a strike, a drastic step no one on the union side wanted.

"We were pushed into a strike and that's where we are at," he added.

In recent years, UAW members have done their part by working with the company on issues such as the corporate restructuring, the attrition plan, the Delphi bankruptcy, the 2005 health care agreement and numerous quality, productivity and health and safety issues. Workers gave up a 3 percent general wage increase in 2006 and cost of living allowances.

"We've met and solved all of GM's problems since 2003," he added. We've worked with General Motors on every issue that came before them."

"We've done a lot of things to help that company," Gettelfinger said. "There comes a point in time when you have to draw the line in the sand."

The UAW leader added that the strike had nothing to do with the much-discussed Voluntary Employee Benefit Association (VEBA) for retirees, which is a permissible but not mandatory subject of bargaining. Job security, economics and benefits for active members remain critical issues for UAW members at GM.

"It's become apparent to us that as much as workers give, they cannot give enough," Gettelfinger said. "As much as executives get, they cannot get enough."