Peninsula In Passage

GE Plant WE ARE FAMILY Television created an economic boom – and an extended family - in the Bennett’s Creek area from 1966 to 1988. GE became a major employer in the area when it opened a television assembly plant on about 134 acres on the northwest side of VA 135. Job seekers came from all over Hampton Roads to join the “GE Family.” “It was on a two lane road – College Drive – with nothing else out there,” Joan Jones remembers. “People in the area were excited about the opening and wanted to work there.” Jones, who lived in Portsmouth when she started working on the assembly line at the plant in 1966, estimates that it opened with about 1500 employees and had about 6000 working there at its peak. “People who came in to run the plant were from the North so there was no prejudice from bosses, they were easy and those few who weren’t good bosses, we made good,” Jones says. “GE offered courses and classes at TCC and I took key punch and business math.” Richard Tillett was just out of the Navy and living in Norfolk on Valentine’s Day in 1966 when he joined GE as a troubleshooter on the TV chassis assembly line. He left GE as a foreman in 1986. He remembers - The plant made 12-inch portables, consoles and larger TVs. I don’t have any bad memories and I felt like everyone was family. I worked as many hours as I wanted - lots of OT, Saturdays, Sundays. I started at 7 a.m. and never knew what time I’d get home at night. The GE closing was one of the hardest things in my life. You could see it coming but GE was a big part of our lives. Really hard to walk away.

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