TOYOTA PLANTS IDLING, BUT WORKERS AREN'T

They will relearn how to pick up screws. They will study safety practices. They will take classes on workplace diversity and ethics, study corporate history, clean up the mess of urban vandals and probably even plant flowers.

But one thing Toyota's 4,500 workers at idle North American plants will not do is get laid off.

As the U.S. auto industry sheds workers and Nissan offers buyouts, Toyota is sticking by its proud-and expensive-tradition of no layoffs during hard times.

"This was the first chance we've really had to live out our values," says Latondra Newton, general manager of Toyota's Team Member Development Center in Erlanger, Kentucky. "We're not just keeping people on the payroll because we're nice. At the end of all this, our hope is that we'll end up with a more skilled North American workforce."

On August 8, Toyota halted production of Tundra pickups and Sequoia SUVs at plants in San Antonio and Princeton, Indiana, for three months, idling 4,500 workers.