Tears will flow as car maker Holden closes its Adelaide assembly operations on Friday, former employee and long-time union official John Camillo says.
When the last Commodore rolls off the production line, the impact will be felt by all the 955 workers who chose to stay to the end.
"Different people get emotional at different times for different reasons. It will be no different on Friday," Mr Camillo told AAP.
"There will be tears. If it doesn't happen at work, it will happen at home.
"These people have been very loyal to the company."
Mr Camillo has also reflected on his own time at Holden.
He started with the company in 1978 before joining the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union as an organiser in 1990 and then spending the past 16 years as state secretary.
In his days at Holden, there were more than 5000 people at the Elizabeth plant working across three shifts and the company made almost everything that went into its cars, right down to the dipsticks.
Today much of the work is outsourced, shifting some of the impact of Holden's shutdown onto smaller component makers.
Estimates suggest about 1500 jobs will be lost in the supplier network.
But Mr Camillo said it was not all bad news with many already securing new work and others planning to retire.
"It's tough, but when one door closes there will be opportunities for people to seek employment elsewhere," he said.
He's also praised Holden for putting in place an excellent redundancy package and credited the workers and the company with doing just about everything they could to keep the factory going in the face of increased global competition and the lack of financial support from the federal government.
For its part the AMWU has committed to helping all former auto workers for the next two years, regardless of whether they continue to pay union dues.
"If they find employment, great, if they don't we'll find out why," Mr Camillo said.
"We'll monitor and help them out."
The union boss said when Holden first announced its decision to end local production there was a lot of hostility directed towards the company.
But most were now just looking to move on with their lives.
"There's a bit of bitterness around the place, but it's not the majority of people," he said.
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