Plants face production breaks

WASHINGTON - Toyota said yesterday it plans to idle production temporarily at two assembly plants while it grapples with massive recalls in the United States.

Toyota spokesman Mike Goss said a plant in San Antonio, Texas, has scheduled production breaks for the weeks of March 15 and April 12. A plant in Georgetown, Kentucky, has scheduled a non-production day on February 26 and may not produce vehicles on three more days in March and April, Goss said.

Goss said the decision was connected to the recalls. He said workers would be retained and paid during the production suspensions and would receive additional training.

The Kentucky plant builds the Camry, Avalon and Venza for Toyota. The Texas plant manufactures the Tundra pickup truck.

Toyota temporarily suspended sales of vehicles like Camry and Corolla in late January after it issued a recall of millions of vehicles because of problems with accelerator pedals. The move was meant to give the carmaker time to come up with a fix.

- AP