Not since the mid-1970s, roughly a decade before Toyota Motor Corp. opened its first U.S. assembly plant has the union ordered a national strike against one of Detroit’s automakers. Thirty seven years later, the United Auto Workers are still raising the same concern against the automakers: Job security.

In one swift act on 11 a.m. on Monday, the UAW jumped from the behind the scenes negotiators to heavy hitting voices, sending all 73,000 UAW-GM members out on strike.

Two days later, General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers reached a tentative agreement on an historic new labor contract, instantly ending the strike and paving the way for GM to pay the union to take over $50 billion in retiree health care obligations.

While American buyers grow hungry for foreign fuel efficiency nameplates like Toyota and Honda, GM meeting the UAW demands is just a baby steps to future job security concerns and one giant leap from another demand of putting cleaner cars on the road. By making these fuel efficient vehicles like Plug-ins, it would create and save thousand of jobs. These vehicles will also keep consumers money in their pockets for their families and community, instead of dealing with the cost of high gas prices. Ford is now up to bat with the UAW. Let’s see how long the workers negotiate with Ford and Daimler Chrysler before another strike begins.