World War II Homefront Era: 1940s: Post War Workers Protest Salary Cuts & Layoffs
Longshoreman and other waterfront workers picket in front of the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco to protest the Coast Guard security screening program. President Truman was staying at the hotel at the time. September 5, 1951. Russ Reed, photographer. Gelatin silver print. Collection of Oakland Museum of California. The Oakland Tribune Collection. Gift of ANG Newspapers.
In this 1951 photograph, San Francisco's longshoremen and waterfront workers form a picket line in front of the Fairmont Hotel. The focus of their protest was President Harry Truman, a guest at the hotel, and the object of their ire was a new security screening program in which the Coast Guard was authorized to root out and fire any maritime workers suspected of having communist sympathies.