Hubert Albertz Papers

Hubert Albertz was born on July 2, 1902, in Antwerp, Belgium. During World War I, Albertz was separated from his family and was forced into labor by the Germans. He worked on German railroad yards connected to coal mines. After the war, France imposed a harsh occupation on the Rhineland and Germany, resulting in chaos and famine. Albertz experienced the effects of post-war occupation, witnessing fights in the streets between Fascists and Marxists, each trying to gain control of Germany after the 1917 Marxist revolution in Russia. Forced into poverty by extreme inflation that devalued the German currency, Albertz and his friends broke into railroad cars to steal coal for heating and bakery shops for bread.

Albertz worked in railroad yards until the end of World War I in 1918. Poor, he stayed in Germany for a while, but eventually immigrated to the United States. His father and older brothers, who had already emigrated from Germany to New York City, managed to find Hubert and invite him over.

When he finally arrived in New York City in 1926, he learned that his father had passed away. In 1927, Albertz married his German-born wife Krescenz. They had a son, George, and a daughter, Elizabeth. In 1936, Hubert Albertz became a U.S. citizen. Despite the economic turmoil of New York City in the 1930s, Albertz was continually employed. He took a job as a superintendent in Brooklyn, and his wife also worked tirelessly under poor conditions to keep a roof over their heads.

Due to these experiences and hardships, Albertz hated to see ordinary men cheated. His strong principles precluded him from engaging in illegal activity when he became a union official in Building Services Employees Union (BSEIU) Local 32K in Brooklyn. Joining the union resulted in losing his job, since his employer refused to work with unions. Albertz then moved to the Bronx, where he found another job as a superintendent and joined the BSEIU Local 32-E.

In 1947 Albertz fell out of favor with the bosses of AFL-CIO Services Employees’ Union Local 32-E when he inquired about his dues and union treasury funds distribution following an arbitrary dues increase. Fired from his job as a building supervisor and expelled from the union, Albertz moved again to seek new employment. Despite his relocation, he continued to endure harassment and attacks, presumably orchestrated by Thomas Lewis, head of Local 32-E.

From about 1948 to 1963, he was an active part of the New York City chapter of the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists, which helped him fight to clean up the Local 32E. For the last 25 years of his life, he was the superintendent of an apartment building in Jackson Heights, Queens. The National Right to Work Committee awarded Albertz its highest honor, the John Seeley Memorial Award. Albertz was a lifelong labor activist and dedicated his life to exposing organized crime within unions.