WILMINGTON - July 28, 2009 (WPVI) -- Former workers from the GM plant in Wilmington were back at their old workplace to see the last car that rolled off the assembly line.
That last car, a Pontiac Solstice convertible, rolled out Tuesday. The plant will close for good on Friday.
"It's a sad day for us today," Randy Episcopo said. "There's a lot of people in there with feelings of remorse at this point. Obviously it was announced a while ago, but this is a sad day. We were not looking forward to this day."
"I've been here over 31 years, and I've seen lots of people come and go out of this plant. It's like losing someone you've been with for many, many years. It's hard," said Randy Shaw.
Many of these adult workers have spent their entire adult lifetime at GM. In it's heyday, more than 4,500 people worked there making hourly wages that could only be matched at the Chrysler plant, which has also closed.
655 employees will be leaving the plant on Friday, saying it's a bittersweet day.
"To me it's actually happy, because we're the last plant on the east coast to be closed. We got blessed in that respect, because we saw so many others close before we did," said Stanley Kaminski.
The director of the Delaware Economic Development Office, Alan Levin, said he is working hard to find another manufacturing company to move into the site.
"It's a sad day," Levin said. "This is the first time in 67 years that an automobile is not being produced in the state of Delaware."