Uralita, S.A., The plant of Cerdanyola (1907-1997)

Cerdanyola is a small village, 15 Km near Barcelona, which had in 1900 a population of 928 people, 35 farmers and two neighbourhoods with 272 houses more articulated by the Barcelona-Terrassa road, the Barcelona-Manresa railway, the Cerdanyola-Sant Cugat road and a vast landscape of vineyards in valleys and hills. In the middle of village, there was the symbol of local power, the city hall of municipality of Cerdanyola.

That agricultural and rural Cerdanyola started the industrialization stage in 1907 with the first asbestos-cement manufacturing site of Spain. José Maria Roviralta, an engineer of Barcelona, was the founder with the name of “Manufacturas Roviralta”. He knew the industry of asbestos-cement sheets because it was already running in Central Europe from some years ago, which used a kind of machine as the mould cylinder machines to produce board.

José Maria Roviralta followed the paper tradition of Cerdanyola, after Torras family who was the first making hand paper manufacturer in that village at the end of XVIII century. The asbestos-ciment industry provided to citizens and companies cheap products. Nobody knew then that the asbestos fibres used to produce these products were dangerous for the human health. The electrification of Cerdanyola started in 1910. The first complaints against the Roviralta company were since 1911, because it supplied the contaminated waters to the La Beguda de Can Tiana stream, which now is the Sant Quintí street. Trade unions movements appeared around of Roviralta company. Anarchist unions (CNT) and the socialist unions (UGT) were the first. To complete the image of twenties, the new church of Saint Martin was inaugurated; the Planas i Casals brothers, leaders of the Unió Patriòtica, the conservative party, and the Marquis of Cerdanyola, were named ‘adopted sons’ of Cerdanyola Municipality. Besides, the Spanish Kings were named ‘honorific majors’ of Cerdanyola.

Uralita’s manufactures of Roviralta brothers was expanded in 1915. Buildings No. 1 and 2 were built between the railway, the road No. 150 and the San Francesc street. The oldest sheet machines were here. They produced corrugated asbestos cement sheets. Building No. 12, commonly named “la Sibèria”, was built fifteen years later between the road No. 150 and Ripollet. There, the mould pieces of asbestos-ciment as tanks, window boxes, etc. were produced by hand. Besides, this plant produced flat asbestos cement sheets, too.

The massive migration of people from the South of Spain (Almeria and Murcia) arrived to Barcelona in the twenties of last century. The Universal Expo of Barcelona (1929), the underground and the building industry needed a lot of quantity of workers. Migration arrived to Cerdanyola, too. The new neighbourhood of Sot de Can Xarau was built close to Sec River. The Roviralta plant increased from 350 workers in 1925 to 700 in 1930. The anarchist union had 800 members in 1931 when the Second Republic was instituted. The main part of them were workers of Roviralta company living in Cerdanyola and Ripollet.

Roviralta brothers got rich a lot of with the Cerdanyola plant. Josep Maria, the founder, was known as the Roviralta of Rolls-Royce, of yacht and of “Les Escales” palace-house. In the other hand, José Maria Roviralta was an open-minded man. He had a modern spirit and he helped all kind of cultural renovation movements as the modern art. He helped artists as Josep Viladomat’s sculptor, who could work in a building of Roviralta plant modeling the Republica’s sculpture. Roviralta also was one of the founders of “Sardanyola Gran Casino”, a meeting and leisure club for the Barcelona people who lived in a small town as Cerdanyola in the Summer times. As liberal and republican man, Roviralta considered to Francesc Macià, the Catalonia president, as the big man of European mentality who  knew to lead to popular passions. Roviralta wrote: -The change arrives! Back the indifference! Make way for the North!

He also was a paternalistic businessman. A lot of his workers admired him due to the humanistic component which he introduced in the relationships. Some retired worker, with the lungs filled of asbestos and never diagnosed as ill of  asbestosis, never will take measures against the company and he never wlll order help to avoid to lose the small complement of base pay assured by José Maria Roviralta for all his workers during all their life. The April 5^th, 1933, Mr. Roviralta changed the initial company name from “Manufacturas Roviralta” to “Manufactures Eternit”.

The Roviralta plant was collectivized by the CNF-FAI anarchist forces at the end of 1936, when there was the Civil War in Spain (1936-39). The new name was “Uralita Empresa Obrera Colectivizada”.

When the civil war finished with the instauration of Franco Dictatorship, the company come back to the old owners, the Roviralta brothers, but they hadn’t the acceptation of Franco regime because both were accused of masonic and republican affections. Spain lived some years of international isolation and the supply of raw materials produced outside wasn’t easy. The financier Juan March, who helped to the general Franco, had a maritime company with a significant fleet of cargo boats. He had international relationships and he could buy the asbestos from Canada, South Africa, etc. Finally, José Maria Roviralta was obliged to sell the company to Juan March. It was in 1943. The company changed the name again to “Uralita, S. A.”. The businessman with artist spirit, the founder, disappeared and a new kind of businessman arrived, a financial man.

Uralita, S. A. was extended in 1943 with a new building, the No. 5, between the N150 road and Sant Francesc and Guimerà streets. A new plant was built in 1947 in the 84 Santa Ana street. It was “Uralita, S. A.”, the textile unit, dedicated to the manufacture of  felts for the asbestos cement products. Sometimes, this plant produced fabrics made with asbestos yarns.

In the fifties of XX century, the asbestosis illness wasn’t still known in Spain, although the oldest workers of Uralita in Cerdanyola already had asbestos fibres in the lungs. Besides, the sheet and pipes residues were eliminated by Uralita filling some streets and ways of Cerdanyola. Now, we have some tons of asbestos cement products crushed on the town.

Uralita, S. A. built a new asbestos cement sheets plant in 1963. It was the Building No. 22, placed between the N150 road and the railway. This plant was working until the year 1997 when the asbestos cement products were cancelled in Cerdanyola. Now, there are a new flat neighbourhood instead of the industrial plant.

On the other hand, the asbestos cement products aren’t manufactured in Cerdanyola, but the footsteps of this malign mineral will stay for a lot of years in the ways of Cerdanyola and with a lot of families affected by the asbestosis.