Idled Toyota Motor Corp. assembly-line workers in San Antonio are spending two weeks cleaning city parks, removing graffiti, painting benches and fixing fences instead of building pickup trucks.
Japan's largest automaker, which counts on the United States to absorb 29 percent of vehicle production, is fighting the first annual sales slump in 13 years.
With the credit crunch scaring buyers away from showrooms, the Toyota, Aichi Prefecture-based company suspended truck-assembly operations in Texas and Indiana and cut initial output plans for a new sport utility vehicle plant in Canada to half the original target.