«Ferrum in the blood»

Valerio, we’re sitting here in your son’s office. Do you have an office as well?
Valerio Bertola (VB): Why would I need an office? My kingdom is the rod warehouse – and has been for 46 years. What’s more, my temperament makes me completely unsuited to an office job – I wouldn’t have the patience to sit in a chair all day. And certainly not to train young apprentices. My son is completely different in that respect.
Gabriele Bertola (GB): Although I have to say that I’m not your classic pencil pusher either. At Ferrum, I originally did an apprenticeship to become a mechanic. Back then, I’d never have imagined that I’d one day be managing the training workshop with 18 apprentices. However, I am still active in the field of production in my role as segment manager for CNC milling.

Valerio, are you proud that your son has gone so far at Ferrum?
VB: Of course! I’m also always amazed when he says such clever things. He passed his apprenticeship exams with flying colors, too. The then master, Ernst Mohler, taught him well.
GB: Above all, I had far better opportunities than my father or grandfather. I was born here, attended Swiss schools and never experienced any linguistic difficulties.

When did the Bertolas come to Switzerland?
VB: My mother emigrated to Switzerland in December 1959, and my father in 1960 – from
necessity. My father came from a farm in the province of Verona which was too small for all the children. My Uncle Ernesto, my mother’s brother, had already emigrated to Switzerland and worked as a hairdresser in Rupperswil. He succeeded in getting my mother a job as a seamstress at the Steiner spinning mill, and my father a job in the Production Department at Ferrum. Without employment
contracts, my parents would never have crossed the border.

And you stayed in Italy?
VB: Yes, with my grandparents. I was a six-year-old boy and raged and screamed. But it was useless. My parents didn’t collect me and take me to Switzerland until everything started getting too much for my grandmother after my grandfather’s death in 1967. I was 13 years old at the time, and didn’t speak a
single word of German.

How was it, growing up in Rupperswil as an «Italian child»?
VB: I would compare it to hitting a brick wall at 100 kilometers an hour. The only thing I was good at here was playing football. We always played Italy against Switzerland – and we usually won. My grade school teacher used to say: Valerio, you have to play more with Swiss children, or you’ll never learn Swiss
German. And his wife was kind enough to give me German lessons every Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.

And when you’d completed grade school, did your father send you to Ferrum to be apprenticed?
VB: What do you think? My school-leaving grades were far too poor to do an apprenticeship. I didn’t understand anything at school – it took me a long time to speak even passable Swiss German. My
parents also only spoke Italian. It was no problem for them, as they were also surrounded by Italians at work. But I was just starting out, and had to look for a job after grade school. My plan was to earn money for three years, and then join the Italian marines. That was my dream.

So how did you end up at Ferrum?
VB: Meantime, my father had been promoted to the post of crane operator in the Schafisheim foundry. He arranged a so-called “pre-apprenticeship” for me. But as I said, my father’s German was appalling, which is how the misunderstanding arose. On my first day, it turned out that I was supposed to work
as the lowest kind of unskilled laborer. Shoveling coal from morning till night. My father said: No, that’s no work for my boy – he’s still a mere youngster! Shortly afterwards, he heard that Ferrum was looking
for someone in the Rupperswil warehouse. That was where my career at Ferrum began – on April 21, 1970, for an hourly wage of 4.20 francs.

And your career as a marine officer?
VB: I gave that up voluntarily for my wife. I’d met her back in grade school. We had a lot in common: She also came to Switzerland at the age of 13 – from Sicily. We got engaged in1973, married in the Catholic
church in Lenzburg in 1976 and Gabriele was born in 1978.

Gabriele, what were your childhood experiences of your father and Ferrum?
GB: Ferrum and our family were one unit. Our apartment was directly opposite the warehouse – I could wave to my father from the balcony. I also had to pass the warehouse on my way to kindergarten. What’s more, my father shared an allotment with Mr. Marzullo in the green space between the warehouse and the railroad track. Back then, many Ferrum workers cultivated vegetables on empty patches of earth on the Ferrum premises. The cast parts warehouse, where I often poked around, much to my father’s
annoyance, was directly next to the allotment. The cast parts seemed enormous to me as a child. And metal fascinated me even in those days – the different colors, the corrosion... And before you know it, I’d slipped and cut my right arm deeply on a piece of sheet metal. So I really have had Ferrum in my blood
since I was five years old.
VB: Afraid of a scolding, Gabriele just ran home immediately. When I got back a little later, the whole stairwell was covered in blood.

Gabriele, your course was set. After your father and grandfather, you were almost bound to sign on at Ferrum, right?
GB: Yes, I’d only heard good things of Ferrum from my father and grandfather, especially as far as the apprenticeship was concerned. Only my mother thought that I should aim higher because of my good
grades at school. She wanted me to work on the office floor. But, after completing a trial apprenticeship as a structural draftsman, it was clear to me that office work wasn’t my thing. So I did my second trial
apprenticeship at Ferrum in October 1995. I liked the sense of team spirit immediately. Back then, we were 16 mech apprentices. Secondly, I was given responsibility straight away, and could turn, drill and trim square cubes to the right length. Thirdly, there was no need to participate in external courses at
Ferrum, as all training modules were covered in-house by the Production Division. So I was delighted when the vocational trainer approached me on the last day of the trial apprenticeship and asked me whether I’d like to apprentice as a mechanic at Ferrum from August 1996 onward.