“We presented a strong offer that improves wages, benefits and grows U.S. jobs in substantive ways, and it is disappointing that the U.A.W. leadership has chosen to strike at midnight tonight,” the company said on Sunday. “We have negotiated in good faith and with a sense of urgency. Our goal remains to build a strong future for our employees and our business.”

[Watch the “Weekly”: G.M.’s chief executive talks about the future of the automaker, arguing it needs to be more like a tech company.]

It is a challenging time for the industry over all, with auto sales slowing in the United States, China and other major markets, and new technologies such as electric cars and self-driving vehicles requiring billions of dollars in investments.

“Carmakers’ profits today distract from two challenges,” said Erik Gordon, a University of Michigan business professor who follows the auto industry. “The makers will be going into a down cycle of demand in their two most important markets and they will have to make the biggest technology investments in their history to change to electric propulsion.”

One of the union’s aims is getting G.M. to reopen an idled car factory in Lordstown, Ohio, a goal that President Trump has endorsed. The plant had made the Chevrolet Cruze, a compact car whose sales plunged nearly 40 percent between 2015, when the previous labor contract was signed, and 2018. The factory ceased production in March.

A person with knowledge of the talks said G.M. was reluctant to reopen the Lordstown plant, but it was willing to discuss building a new battery factory in that area of Ohio as it shifts to electric vehicles.

G.M. has also expressed willingness to keep open a car plant in Detroit that had been targeted for closure, this person said.