Union members picket outside a General Motors facility in Langhorne, Pa., Monday, Sept. 16, 2019. More than 49,000 members of the United Auto Workers walked off General Motors factory floors or set up picket lines early Monday as contract talks with the company deteriorated into a strike. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

DETROIT (AP) — Talks are set to resume today after a pause overnight, but there was no end to the strike against General Motors.

Brian Rothenberg, spokesman for the UAW, said today “They are talking, they’ve made progress, we’ll see how long it takes.”

The walkout by upward of 49,000 United Auto Workers members has brought to a standstill more than 50 factories and parts warehouses in the union’s first strike against the No. 1 U.S. automaker in over a decade.

Workers left factories and formed picket lines shortly after midnight Monday in the dispute over a new four-year contract. The union’s top negotiator said in a letter to the company that the strike could have been averted had the company made its latest offer sooner.

The letter dated Sunday suggests that the company and union are not as far apart as the rhetoric leading up to the strike had indicated. Negotiations continued Monday in Detroit after breaking off during the weekend.

But Rothenberg said the two sides have come to terms on only 2% of the contract.

“We’ve got 98% to go,” he said Monday.

Asked about the possibility of federal mediation, President Donald Trump, said it’s possible if the company and union want it.

“Hopefully they’ll be able to work out the GM strike quickly,” Trump said before leaving the White House for New Mexico. “Hopefully, they’re going to work it out quickly and solidly.”

Wall Street did not like seeing the union picketers. GM shares closed Monday down more than 4% to $37.21. In premarket trading today, shares edged up 16 cents.

On the picket line Monday at GM’s transmission plant in Toledo, Ohio, workers who said they have been with the company for more than 30 years were concerned for younger colleagues who are making less money under GM’s two-tier wage scale and have fewer benefits.