DETROIT (Reuters) - Tom Budimerovich and thousands of other Detroit auto workers went to work on Monday hoping for answers about the fate of their jobs and their industry.

Instead, they got uncertainty as the Obama administration prepared to send General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC through a more wrenching restructuring .

"The wait is driving us crazy," said Tom Budimerovich, 38, an assembly-line worker at Chrysler's Warren truck plant.

"You want to make a plan for tomorrow. Right now, you work hard all day long and go home worried about losing your job the next day," he said, standing outside the entrance of the plant that makes Dodge Ram and Dakota pickup trucks.

On Monday, President Barack Obama ordered General Motors Corp and Chrysler to accelerate their restructuring efforts and brace for possible bankruptcy.

GM was given 60 days to rework its plans, and Chrysler was told it had 30 days to complete an alliance with Fiat SpA. The alternative: a cut-off of government funding.

Automakers, parts suppliers and dealerships have lost more than 400,000 jobs over the past year as Detroit's automakers cut costs to survive a brutal downturn in sales.

Autoworkers came to expect layoffs, plant closures and concessions, all of which they were told were necessary to keep the big three U.S. auto companies from failing.

But as the government drew a deeper line in the sand, workers were left in limbo.

"Any feelings I had before, I have no idea now," said Bill Jordan, president of UAW Local 599 who represents hourly workers at GM's plant in Flint, Michigan.

"I don't know what it means. It shocks me. I'm going to have to wait and see what takes place in the next few days before I have any thoughts on it," Jordan said.

Since 2006, GM has cut 60,500 hourly jobs, more than half of its U.S. factory workforce. Ford has slashed 43,000 U.S. hourly jobs since 2005, and Chrysler has announced nearly 22,000 hourly job cuts since February 2007.

At 12 percent, Michigan's unemployment rate is the highest in the nation. In Detroit, the jobless rate is 22 percent, almost three times the national average.

Auto workers represented by the United Auto Workers union, many of whom campaigned for Obama, were angry that the government appeared to be taking a tougher line on the automakers than on banks and financial companies like insurer American International Group.

"They gave all the money to AIG without any problems and we are still scared for our lives," said Dan Hodgson, who has been working at Chrysler's Warren plant for 10 years.

Bill Alford, a UAW president who represents the Detroit plant of auto parts supplier American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc, said he also was frustrated.

The supplier, which builds components for GM, has lost more than half of its 3,600 union workers since May. "The auto industry has done nothing but suffered," Alford said.

'People feel like they're drowning'

In Ferndale, a suburb just outside Detroit, Bryan Motyka was playing in a 10-day, non-stop concert being held at a cafe intended to rally support for the American auto industry.

Outside, local auto dealers had lined up new models including a screaming orange Dodge Challenger. The cars had stickers on the front windshield reading "Our American Big Three.'

"My father worked for Ford for 35 years and my grandfather was also an auto worker. That's why I played here today," said Motyka, who had to close his tattoo shop last year when business worsened.

"Every day people lose jobs and there are no new jobs. People feel like they're drowning," he said.

Virg Bernero, mayor of Lansing, Michigan and one of the local officials who met with members of the autos task force during six weeks of closed-door meetings, said while auto workers have already given up a lot they now need to do more.

"I'm encouraged that the administration is committed to making a strong American auto industry," Bernero said. "I just took a US$5,000 pay cut. It's recession, and everybody has to give something up."