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General Motors Co. employees near Nashville, Tenn., narrowly rejected a proposed contract with the United Auto Workers, an early indication that the union’s vote to end a more than five-week strike could be a close call.

The United Auto Workers will continue striking against General Motors Co. until a tentative deal is ratified by members, extending its walkout for at least another week.

General Motors Co. and the United Auto Workers have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract, and the union will decide Oct. 17 whether to continue a more than monthlong strike while the deal is voted on by members.

General Motors Co. Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra is meeting with United Auto Workers leaders at the main bargaining table Oct. 15 as the two sides inch closer to a tentative agreement that could end a strike now in its fifth week.

The strike at General Motors Co. entered its fourth week with the United Auto Workers union and the carmaker at an impasse over investment in U.S. factories, overshadowing progress made in recent days on other key issues.

General Motors Co. and the United Auto Workers remain far apart in their talks over a new contract, according to the union’s top negotiator, making it less likely a strike called Sept. 15 will end within two days like a previous work stoppage did in 2007.

Union leaders from General Motors Co. factories across the country are flying into Detroit this weekend to either agree to take a proposed labor contract offered by the automaker to their members for a vote, or go on strike.

President Donald Trump criticized General Motors Co. for shrinking its U.S. manufacturing presence, which has reduced the company’s unionized workforce to the smallest among Detroit’s automakers.

General Motors Co. now employs fewer union-represented American workers than its domestic rivals for the first time since the United Auto Workers started organizing Detroit’s carmakers eight decades ago.

General Motors Co. is looking like a port in the storm as new trucks and cost-cutting efforts pad profit in the midst of slowing industry sales.