DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union ratified a package of concessions designed to reduce General Motors' labor costs.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said at a news conference Friday that 74 percent of GM's 54,000 U.S. production and skilled-trade workers voted in favor of the deal.

The vote comes before an expected Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing by GM on Monday. Bankruptcy experts say having the labor agreement in place will help move the process through court more quickly.

The UAW says the cuts will save GM $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion a year.

UAW leaders agreed to the revised contract last week that freezes wages, ends bonuses, eliminates noncompetitive work rules and ends the possibility of a strike until the next contract expires in 2015.

It also gives a union-run retiree health care trust 17.5 percent ownership of a post-bankruptcy protection GM, with a warrant to buy another 2.5 percent. The trust will take on the company's retiree health care costs starting next year. The stock will come in exchange for part of the company's $20 billion obligation to the trust.

GM has received $19.4 billion in loans from the U.S. government, which would get 72.5 percent ownership of the new company, perhaps sharing with the Canadian government. The remaining 10 percent would go to GM bondholders to wipe out $27 billion in unsecured debt.

Bondholders have until 5 p.m. Saturday to accept or reject the stock-for-debt offer, under which they would get a warrant for an additional 15 percent of the new GM's stock.

Existing GM shareholders would be left with little or nothing, and GM shares fell 32 cents, or 29 percent, to 80 cents in afternoon trading. They fell as low as 75 cents earlier Friday, their lowest level since the Great Depression.

Plans are for GM to emerge from bankruptcy with lower labor costs, far less debt and with fewer factories, brands, models and dealerships.