ilwu Collection Joseph Grosso

Untitled #13 [Quitting Time]

Another universal feature of the working-class experience — the haste to get out at the end of the work day. Here, longshoremen wait their turn to climb the ladder up out of the hold where they have been loading barrels on the bottom level and lumber on the middle level. Note the white caps worn by most of the men–indicating that this is a west coast scene– and that African American and white workers are on the job together.

Unsigned oil painting by James Grosso, circa 1955.

See this image in the Art from the Waterfront exhibit