Industry is a very important environmental factor. In many places, it is the driving force of the economic development as it offers a lot of jobs, development and progress of the environment, and consequently a good economic and social state of the inhabitants. However, it also has some bad characteristics. These are especially the pollution of the environment, the incidence of disease related to the pollution and difficult working conditions in the past. In the curriculum, the school subject Society in 4th and 5th grade of primary school is set several learning objectives referring to the already mentioned issues, so I decided to discuss the industrial enterprise Salonit Anhovo in my master’s degree. The company’s operation caused large negative changes to the people and to the environment. In the theoretical part, I described the formation of the enterprise and its major turning points in history, the influence of the enterprise on the environment, the impact of the Second World War on the enterprise activity, basic information about asbestosis and occupational diseases that were appearing.
The empirical part of my master’s thesis represents a qualitative research. The data were acquired by the interviews with the workers who were employed in the enterprise. The aim of this master’s thesis is to establish what is the workers’ attitude (positive or negative) towards the enterprise. I included twelve people aged between about 50 and 90 years into the empirical part. The acquired results will be helpful particularly for teachers in local primary schools but also for others teaching social sciences. In fact, they will be able to explain more easily specific learning content to pupils by means of this master’s thesis.
The research that was carried out helped me to ascertain that the employees worked in difficult working and weather conditions. They were exposed to asbestos as they were operating without or with bad protecting equipment. Later, the enterprise started taking more care to protect the working and natural environment, and the working time of the employees ameliorated. The superiors were on good terms with the employees and the employment had a positive influence on the lives of the workers. I established that the majority of the interviewees have mixed feelings about the enterprise; positive because of the improved financial situation and negative due to the deaths of close relatives and friends.
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