Guzzi and Mandello

During the fascist era, Moto Guzzi had an internal school to prepare future specialised employees: fitters and turners. Together with other companies, it also financed an evening drawing school; it considered this institution to be its pride and joy.

This was one of the most important initiatives. It was large and well equipped: butcher’s shop, cold stores, warehouses and cellars.
It sold fresh products (meat, eggs, dairy products), medicines, clothing, furniture, toiletries and hygiene products, various haberdashery items and electrical appliances.
For workers, buying cheaply meant a real increase in their salary.

It was initially a covered space in the after-work area, then it was created inside the factory.
Out of hours, it was a place for celebrating victories in motorbike races or other sports.

Inside the factory there were various services:
• medical and nursing clinic
• first aid station
• nurse, doctor, ophthalmologist and dentist.
• distribution of medicines such as penicillin and streptomycin
• visits for children to be sent to the holiday camps
• vaccinations
• free compulsory check-ups for employees in the chromium-plating, painting and sandblasting departments. In the Paint Shop, half a litre of milk was distributed daily as a preventive measure.
• Company Health Insurance
• 70 showers
• 1,502 lockers in the changing rooms.

Starting in the 1920s, Moto Guzzi built many houses for workers, houses or cottages for employees and villas for managers.
In 1950 it inaugurated the houses on the hill above the factory: the Guzzi village which was added to the Guzzi Apartments in Molina and at the Piazza della Vittoria (“Casone”), built at the end of the 1920s.
The company also adhered to state plans for social housing (the Fanfani houses, built in various locations around Mandello).

Summer camps for employees’ children were important (Lavagna, Chiavari, Santa Margherita). At the end of the 1950s a modern building was built in Bordighera, surrounded by greenery. All the children, who could go both in summer and winter, were given uniforms with the MOTO GUZZI logo and the eagle symbol on the T-shirt and cap. The capacity was 264 children at a time.

To create moments of leisure and aggregation among the employees, a Workers’ Recreation Centre operated; equipped with a library, bocce courts, games and billiard rooms, a bar, it organised foreign language courses, tourist trips and excursions, cultural meetings and concerts held by the Factory Orchestra.