Ensidesa :The history of a company

my history

2ºAGE-twinning 2009

Ensidesa by Isabel I am living in Aviles thanks to ENSIDESA. You

may be wondering why, do not worry I’ll tell you everything about it. My grandparents come from Malaga to Avilés looking for a job, because there was none there. My grandfather had a stroke of luck and started working in ENSIDESA. He and my grandmother bought a flat in La Luz, a neighbourhood built specially for the ENSIDESA workers and their families.

My mother was brought up in La Luz, as well as her three brothers and two sisters. As they grown up, my three uncles ended up working in ENSIDESA, in fact, they are still working there.

Now, I live in La Luz with my parents and my sister. Needless to say, that the nowadays conditions of the neighbourhood, have nothing to do with how it was when my grandparents come to live there. There are lots of new buildings and the population has increased in a great number.

I did not really know the history of my neighbourhood until our school made a kind of presentation. This was done in order to teach the children how it was. I found all this information very interesting, and since then I feel prouder to life where I live.

Nowadays, I have lots of friends who are working in ENSIDESA, so it is still a part of my life. And, who knows, maybe ENSIDESA will play an important role in my future life.

Isabel currently lives in Versalles andis a successful university student.She has done different jobs throughout Young life: shop assisstant, baby sitter, Waitress, etc.She is very keen on sports, languages and travelling.She is a proud citizen of Aviles

Ensidesa by Manuel ENSIDESA was created in 15th June 1950. It was

created by the Government. In 1973 after its union with UNINSA, ENSIDESA became the bigger steel producer in Asturias, that nowadays is called ARCELOR. In the beginning there were only 19 people working, but in 1975 it reached the number of 27.244 employees.

At that time, Spain tried to overcome the economical problems, brought about by the civil war. It was looking for a position in the world and Avilés had received an important historic impulse with the construction of ENSIDESA.

In 1950 the Government ordered the National Institute of Industry the creation of a factory whose capacity was approximately of 600.000 tons of finished products. The Government chose Asturias, but inside Asturias there were three options as well: San Esteban de Pravia, Gijón and Avilés. Nor the first one, because of the necessity of a big port, neither the second, because it had to be only for the use of ENSIDESA, Avilés was the best option. Since then, the history of Avilés was in touch with the history of ENSIDESA.

The new factory was considered as “general interest” and more than 4.000.000 m2 were expropriated to build ENSIDESA. It was finally established in 28th July and after long doubts and hesitation, it was decided to build it on the right bank of the river of Avilés.

As a result, Avilés boosted its population from 21.340 inhabitants, in 1950, to 42.134 in 1958. So in this sense, a large number of new neighbourhoods appeared in the surrounding of Avilés, as Versalles, La Luz or Llaranes.

Manuel, a dedicated student, is very interested in Economics and History. He haswitnessed during the last 15 years the huge changes undergone by Ensidesa/Aceralia and how this has shaped the city of Avilés and his inhabitants.

People who arrived to Avilés were technicians and not qualified workers that did any type of work.

In 1957 the first blast furnace started to work. There were three more during those years. The electricity that ENSIDESA needed was produced in its own power station. ENSIDESA used salted water from the river and from the reservoirs of La Granda and Trasona.

In particular I’ll say that I’m one of these people who are related to ENSIDESA, because my father has been working for a company which uses the products from ARCELOR and nowadays me too. My childhood was involved in a period where radical changes in the steel sector and in the coal mining took place and affected a large part of the population in Asturias.

Between 1984 and 1990, the steel sector suffered a lot of changes in Spain, especially in Avilés and Gijón. There were big differences between our factories and foreign factories, mainly in points related to the final cost of the product. We weren’t competitive.

During the last twenty years the main customers of ENSIDESA (car and ship industries) have been influenced by the effects of the crisis of the 70´s. There were an excess of steel in the market because of the production of countries which had been industrialised recently. Their products were cheaper than products from Europe in general and from Spain in particular.

The production exceeded by far the market demand. As a result to solve the problem the State tried to reduce the capacity of the factories, but nevertheless it wasn’t enough thus it was necessary a change in the structure of the steel sector.

In Spain these changes started in 1984, whereas in the rest of Europe they had started some years before, in the 70´s.In spite of the investments and the reduction of employees, the costs of products were too high.In those years some companies, as the company I work for, had to find new clients or to join with other companies in order to survive.In contrast with the 60´s a lot of things have changed, because this is a sector which is influenced in a large way, by the economic situation all over the world. For instance a lot of small factories have disappeared, because nowadays ARCELOR is smaller than ENSIDESA and a lot of products come from other countries, because their prices are cheaper than in Spain.

Ensidesa by DavidIt is clear that the HISTORY of Avilés

cannot be told without mentioning the old state-owned enterprise, E.N.S.I.D.E.S.A.. It changed the city and the life of its people for the better, but now living on a democracy as we are, we can be critic with many of the actions which were taken during those years.

Obviously the construction of the factory in the mid fifties did put us on the map. Avilés was a small village living on fishing, trading, and the decision to build the factory in Avilés gave thousands of people an opportunity to get a job, to make a family or to buy a house. The population of Avilés increased hugely and many small steel companies established near the city, creating a strong industrial sector in the region.

However the fast expansion of the city, forced the rulers to build new hauses for the new workers, with no urban planning nor protecting the old eighteenth-nineteenth century buildings, losing the special atmosphere of the city for ever. Furthermore due to the industrial activity the pollution became a serious problem, leading the list of the most polluted cities in Spain for many years and causing big health problems to the population

David, who is currently involved in thesteel sector, makes a mature and objective omment about the presence of this company/ industry in Aviles

On the other hand the company suffered financial problems due to a lack of competitiveness during all its life. It was a company only strong inside the country, not in European markets, accumulating a huge debt during many years. The situation became extremely worrying during the eighties and a lot of people lost their jobs. Fortunately the economic situation of the company started to change when it was privatized in the nineties, being nowadays one of the factories of the steel giant “ArcelorMittal”.

Avilés is now trying to recover from the mistakes made in the past. Who knows if the steel sector will survive the current recession or the city will have to rely on new sectors. Maybe the new Niemeyer Cultural Center can put Avilés on the map again.

Ensidesa by PabloEnsidesa was the name OF a steel business that was placed near Aviles in the early 1950’s. Now, after some steel-restructuring changes in its more than 50 years old company, it belongs to the firma ArcelorMittal which is the biggest steel company in the world.

After Spanish Civil War, the Government decided to improve the Spanish economy, by developing huge industries involving power resources like metal (ENSIDESA, INESPAL...), coal (HUNOSA...) petrol (CAMPSA...) and electric power stations (ENDESA...).

In the early 50’s Avilé was a very small town that was not prepared for the arrival of thousands of workers, that had found a new job in the new company.

People came to Aviles in two great waves, firstly in late 40’s, workers came TO build the company, expand the port limits...build new neighbourhoods (Versalles, Llaranes...), roads, schools...and create lots of facilities that would be needed by the future employees; and in the 50’s the second wave came, the people who would work in Ensidesa and the families of all of them .

This enormous amount of population brought with them lots of new opportunities. People needed shops where they would buy new clothes, supermarkets where they could buy food, pubs where people could take a drink, hospitals, schools for children...etc.

Due to this big increase of population, nowadays it is difficult to find someone whose grandparents were born in Aviles. In my case neither of my parents were born here. They arrived in Aviles in the late 60’s looking for a job as teachers. They met in Aviles in the early 70’s, they married and had three children (I am the youngest).

In conclusion I think I have many things in common with this company, especially now that I have been working for it since 2005.

Pablo, is a design student, interested in languages and travelling, he makes a brief summary of the history of Aviles linked to ht

OTHER VOICES

Myriam, is currently involved in the turism business, she briefly explains her views

of Aviles vs the steel factory

Beatriz, a Primary teacher, offers a brief general overview of the city

Other collaborators of 2ºAG