UAW says GM talks to intensify; jobs issue looms

DETROIT May 18 (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers union expects a crucial round of restructuring talks with General Motors Corp (GM.N) "to intensify this coming week" ahead of an end-of-May deadline set by the Obama administration.

In an e-mail message to rank-and-file workers, the union also repeated its opposition to GM's plans to shutter 16 U.S. manufacturing plants and cut over 20,000 jobs while also planning to increase vehicle imports from GM plants in lower-wage economies like Mexico, South Korea and China.

"We are expecting the restructuring negotiations to intensify this coming week," the union said in the message. "The UAW is actively involved in these complex negotiations, which involve the Obama auto task force, GM management, bondholders and secured lenders, dealers, part suppliers and other stakeholders. These negotiations will have a major impact on wages, benefits and jobs for active and retired UAW members."

GM faces a deadline to restructure its debt, including healthcare-related obligations to the UAW, by the end of the month ahead of a bankruptcy filing that the automaker says is now probable.

GM has been kept in operation since the start of the year with more than $15 billion in federal loans and would be majority owned by the U.S. government under the terms of the reorganization it has proposed to the Obama administration.

In its e-mail message to members sent late Sunday, the UAW leadership urged auto workers and retirees to write to President Barack Obama and ask him to dictate job-saving changes to GM's restructuring plan.