The United Auto Workers criticised General Motors on Wednesday after the automaker said the union would have to pay for striking workers’ health care on Tuesday.

“It’s unfortunate that General Motors is using current heath care benefits – that over 47,000 GM workers and their families depend on – as a way to leverage unfair concessions,” UAW spokesman Jason Kaplan told Fox Business in a statement on Wednesday.

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“This is a disappointing fork in the road for GM. Regardless, UAW will pick up the tab through our emergency strike fund.”

The report said union and company bargainers are making progress toward a new contract as a strike by unionised workers, which brought 33 General Motors factories to a halt on Monday, continued into its third day.

Fox Business said committees working on tricky issues such as wages, health insurance costs, use of temporary workers, and new work for plants slated to close worked until early Tuesday evening and were scheduled to resume bargaining early on Wednesday.

UAW spokesman Brian Rothenberg told Fox Business the talks were moving slowly but progressing.

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The UAW has a strike fund to support its members but this will be a major drain.

Terry Dittes, director of the UAW General Motors department, said that the union was looking into its legal options in a letter to union leaders on Tuesday.

Fox Business noted the strike had officially outlasted GM autoworkers’ most recent nationwide strike in 2007, which lasted for two days.

GM has previously said it spends about US$1bn a year on health care coverage for hourly workers, according to Reuters.

Autoworkers on strike will have to wait almost two weeks before receiving assistance pay of $250 a week, Fox Business said.