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Toyota Motor Corp. on Tuesday told 200 temporary workers at its full-size truck plant here they will be laid off this summer.

The company will also slow production at its Tundra plant, scheduling 14 days between now and October when no trucks will roll off the assembly lines. Those days, workers will be allowed to take vacation, days without pay or work at the plant on non-manufacturing duties as they choose, said Toyota spokesman Mike Goss.

The temporary workers were hired at the plant with hopes of becoming permanent employees as other workers left, but they will instead be returned to the agency that helped hire them, Goss said.

"We have a very long-term view of that factory in Texas. We're trying not to overreact. We're trying not to shut it down," said Goss, who noted record-high gas prices and a slowing economy have badly damaged truck sales.

The layoffs announced Tuesday do not affect the company's permanent work force of 2,000 at the San Antonio plant that opened in November 2006. At full capacity, the plant can produce 200,000 trucks a year.
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