Tobacco giant Philip Morris shuts down NC plant

(NECN/ABC) – Philip Morris ended production at its Concord, NC plant Wednesday night and laid off about 1,000 workers. The last cigarettes rolled off the machines around nine o’clock. The factory closed a year early. Philip Morris planned to stop production in 2010, but its cigarette sales declined faster than expected. Sarah Moore worked at the plant. She stopped by to talk as she pulled out of the parking lot. “It’s very sad. It’s sad to see these people go and lose their jobs,” Moore said. Workers in the cafeteria will remain for another few days to clean up the kitchen. Michelle Blalock’s husband worked at the plant for 23 years and was just two years away from retirement. “He’s been in tobacco his whole entire life so he’s kinda lost a little bit, ” she said. Blalock said it could be worse. Her husband is getting a year’s severance pay plus money to go back to school. But that doesn’t help with their 12-year-old daughter. She just had surgery on a brain tumor. “We were afraid insurance was gonna be cut or we would run out of insurance before all the procedures were done,” Blalock said.