GM Generali

(Updates with spokesman saying white-collar jobs to be cut, timing)

NEW YORK (AFP)--Embattled automaker General Motors Corp. (GM), racing to restructure to avoid collapse, plans to cut 1,600 white-collar jobs in the next 10 days, a GM spokesman said Monday.

"Starting this week, GM will write to 1,600 white collars to let them know they'll separate by May 1," GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson told AFP.

The layoffs are part of GM's plan announced in February to shed 3,400 white-collar jobs this year in the United States, he said.

"We think we'll complete most of that by May 1," he said.

President Barack Obama's administration has given GM until June 1 to present an aggressive restructuring plan, after the government, which has pumped $13.4 billion in public aid into the nation's biggest automaker, rejected its previous restructuring plan in late March.

GM, the former world's leading automaker that has been reeling from an auto sales slump amid prolonged U.S. recession, could be forced to file for a bankruptcy court-supervised restructuring if it fails to meet the federal deadline.

In an update on its progress in developing the restructuring plan, GM reiterated Friday that it wanted to avoid filing for bankruptcy protection but was preparing for it nevertheless.

GM management says it needs $5 billion in additional public funds soon to survive.

To date, GM has reduced its worldwide workforce this year by 47,000 jobs, including about 26,000 outside the U.S., bringing its global workforce to 200,000.

In the U.S., in addition to white-collar jobs, GM has slashed 7,000 factory jobs this year in a voluntary departure program, Wilkinson said.