DUBLIN -- Despite rain and freezing temperatures, members of United Auto Workers Local 2069 took to the picket line Friday for the first day of a strike that has emptied and idled one of the region's largest employers.

Around midmorning, 25 pickets stood outside the Volvo Trucks North America plant in Dublin waving to passing motorists and hoisting signs reading, "UAW On Strike Unfair Labor Practices."

In contrast to the dreary weather and the failed negotiations that had landed them outside, the mood among the strikers was decidedly upbeat.

"We had real good turnout and good spirits," said Randy Rakes, a member of Local 2069's executive board, as he looked out on a union hall filled with about 120 chatting members. "Today we're just trying to get everything in place with our people to take care of their needs and get them a place on the line to picket."

The union first began picketing just after midnight, when members got word that the union's bargaining committee had failed to reach a tentative agreement with Volvo.

Contract negotiations first began in early January, and union members voted Monday to authorize a strike in the event an agreement could not be reached by the time the current contract ended at midnight Thursday. The vote passed then with 95 percent of the vote.

Reached by cellphone about 12:30 a.m. Friday, UAW Local 2069 Vice President Tim Barnes confirmed a strike had begun and said about 1,200 workers had walked out of the plant at midnight.

About 50 were already outside picketing, he added, and "people will be out there until this is over."

Neither Volvo nor the union, however, has any idea when that might be.

"The UAW has cut off the talks and left the table," said Volvo spokesman Jim McNamara. "If it were up to us, we would still be discussing the issues."

"There's no crystal ball," Rakes said when asked how long the strike might last. "Our negotiating committee is willing to hear anything the company has to say."

The last time UAW Local 2069 went on strike, in 1991, employees spent four weeks out of work, and what was then called Volvo-GM Heavy Truck Corp. began sending truck orders out of state.

This time, Rakes said, the union "might be a little more organized" and, regardless of how long the strike might last, its more than 2,460 members would "see it through."

In the meantime, it's unclear when -- or how -- production at the 2,900-employee plant will continue.

McNamara said the facility, which produces all Volvo trucks sold in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, was closed Friday but would not speculate about when it might reopen.

"We're considering a variety of options to keep the plant running as close to full production as soon as possible," he said. But "we're not getting into the details."

Unsure when they might be back at work, union members signed up Friday for what Rakes called "strike duty" -- a four-hour-a-week commitment to picket.

In return for fulfilling that duty, the International UAW maintains members' health insurance and pays them $200 a week.

The sum, Rakes said, amounts to about a third of a member's typical weekly take-home pay and it likely won't take long for members to feel the pinch. Plant employees make an average of $21 to $22 an hour.

"Anytime you cut your pay by two-thirds, it's going to be an adjustment," Rakes said. "Everybody will have to lean down their spending and buying and activities -- they will have to scale back."

The uncertainty caused by failed contract negotiations and a subsequent strike comes after an unusually up-and-down year at the Volvo plant -- a year when hundreds of workers were laid off, then recalled and then told they were likely to be laid off again.

In early 2007, Volvo cut about 900 of its then 3,170 jobs. Eight months later, the company recalled 580 workers in an effort to temporarily increase production. And just months after that, in early December, Volvo announced plans to lay off 650 workers this month.

In an e-mail Friday, McNamara said the latest layoffs "have not been implemented due to the strike."

But even so, the lack of stability has taken its toll.

"This past year has been incredibly tough," Rakes said. "The morale of workers inside the factory has been at an all-time low because of the way they've been treated."

Some of this frustration was outlined Friday in a letter distributed to union members.

Signed by UAW Local 2069 President Lester Hancock, the letter states: "Despite our willingness to work toward compromises on the many issues that separate us, management continues making unreasonable proposals that would erode the wages and benefits that we've fought so many years to achieve and protect."

"Even worse," the letter continues, "Volvo is seeking to dismantle many of the most basic health and safety protections found in our current agreement."

McNamara countered with the following response: "We provide our employees a healthy, safe work environment and we are committed to continuing to do so. We think some of the information the UAW has provided on this issue has been inaccurate, but we're not prepared to get into more detail right now."