General Motors Corp and the United Auto Workers have reached an agreement on contract changes and restructuring $20 billion in debt owed to a trust fund for retiree healthcare, the union said on Thursday.

The tentative agreement, which was reached after a round of intensive talks involving representatives of the U.S. Treasury, will now go to a ratification vote by UAW-represented workers.

Details of the agreement were being withheld until GM workers are briefed on the proposed new contract, the union said in a statement.

A deal between GM and the UAW was one of the key obstacles for the automaker to clear before a June 1 deadline for the company to restructure its debt as part of a process widely expected to include a bankruptcy filing.

By winning a new labor deal with the consent of its major union and the Obama administration, GM is in a position take a plan for creditor concessions into a bankruptcy filing even if it fails to win support from bondholders, analysts said.

"I'm convinced that they have no choice but to file bankruptcy. To the extent that you have constituencies with whom you've made an agreement prior to filing, it makes the outcome that much easier to achieve," said Scott Peltz, managing director at accounting and consulting firm RSM McGladrey in Chicago.

At this point it appears inevitable that GM is going to file Bankruptcy.  I don't know if the UAW should agree to these concessions or not.  If the company folds they have no jobs.  But someone has to stand up for the workers, and if it is not the UAW who will it be.  One has to remember they are agreeing to restructure contracts GM had previously agreed to.  The workers are giving up contract rights they already held. 

Part of me believes they should go on strike.  The status quo has brought them to a breath away from ruin, why not take drastic action.  Afterall, if it was not for the autoworkers in the 1930s staging massive sit-ins and strikes the middle class would have never grown as large as it did.  I'm sure it was a very difficult decision for people back then to do it, just as it is today.  But they did take action and our country was far better off for it.