SS061.Mp3 David Yellin

SS061.mp3 David Yellin‐ Side 2, side 2 on June 2nd 1968 with Mr. Ed Gillis, with David Yellin and Bill Thomas. Bill Thomas‐ Mr. Gilis going back to one point there when you got your job through Charlie Saul where there a number of people that worked for t he city that got their jobs that way? Ed Gillis‐ No, here is why I got that that way. I didn’t know anybody see personally. I said I will give him $2 if you will get me a job. He said Gillis, I know a foremen over there that wants a southern man to work for him. He said, he can’t keep none of these, he said these youngsters they don’t stay on the job long so he is always short of hand. I said tell him I am just the man, I will be there everyday. And he came out there and talked with him and put me to work that morning and I have been there even since, Mr. Pope. Bill Thomas‐ Did Mr. Saul get jobs for quite a number of people do you remember or what? Ed Gillis‐ No, not particularly. David Yellin‐ This wasn’t a regular thing , this was just a perk. Ed Gillis‐ He was just helping somebody out. David Yellin‐ That’s right and you were a good sport you said two dollars you gave it to him. But I go a lot of people on there I have about 15 people on there didn’t charge nothing. Of course the foremen knew me and they believed what I said. I was a good worker and I told him they was a good worker, I got a lot of them on there. I got a lot of different fellows on there. David Yellin‐ Ok now you stared to work can you go through your career in Memphis. Ed Gillis‐ Then after we started on the rock crushing gang, it was curb and gutter out there on the streets. Well we had the tree trunks hauled to the rock crusher, I had a 12 pound boulder and broke that stuff right up with three trucks (muffled). In the meantime, in the winter time when it was bad, we haul all that tar and brick out of the crematory yard down there, up there and they crush that up and they make a kind of a coal mix to put in the alleys see. It is too cold to bad to work out in the weather we be out on the rock crusher. We did that until we got hot sand then once we got hot we go back on hauling our concrete breaking that concrete. I broke it daily, every day. David Yellin‐ Now you said that you got on blue cross and you got on the pension fund. Ed Gillis‐ Yes sir. David Yellin‐ The other thing, red cross. Ed Gillis‐ Well that was just a donation. David Yellin‐ Then you kept it up however and you have been on it ever since. You think Bill we should go right to the Memphis, to last February? Bill Thomas‐ I guess so, unless where were you living here at that time Mr. Gillis? Ed Gillis‐ Well I live right down there on Texas, the first two story house on Texas, I just remembering now, I lived there a while. Bill Thomas‐ You lived in the same neighborhood all the time. Ed Gillis‐ All the time, I moved around there on Horrace back when my store, I lived there about 6 years. I moved to Peepstreet alley I lived there for 5 years. Bill Thomas‐ Peepstreet Alley. Ed Gillis‐ Yeah anyhow, they call it Peachstreet Alley, then I live down there 3 or 4 years and I have been here ever since September. David Yellin‐ Of this year? Ed Gillis‐ Of last year. David Yellin‐ What do you pay rent? Ed Gillis‐ Yes. David Yellin‐ Can you tell us how much you pay? Ed Gillis‐ $38.50 a month is what I am supposed to pay. David Yellin‐ How about utilities, do you have to pay all that? Ed Gillis‐ I have to pay all that utility bill and everything. David Yellin‐ You said that is what you are supposed to pay what does that mean you pay it or you don’t? Ed Gillis‐ Well I haven’t paid this last one. Bill Thomas‐ Who owns the house do you know? Ed Gillis‐ Mrs. Abe Alpine I think you call him. David Yellin‐ Is he the owner or the agent? Ed Gillis‐ She is the owner. David Yellin‐ Oh Mrs. Ed Gillis‐ She owns product all over town. David Yellin‐ Does she own the rest of the houses here? Ed Gillis‐ She owns this house, and that house, and I think another one (muffled). David Yellin‐ Yeah Alpine. Ed Gillis‐ She owns, probably got all around here. David Yellin‐ Who collects the rent for her? Ed Gillis‐ Well I mail mine to her, her daughter and son was collecting but I mail mine in and sometimes she comes out and collects. David Yellin‐ Yeah where does she live. Ed Gillis‐ Way out somewhere but I can’t think of the name of the street. She comes out here sometimes to collect. David Yellin‐ Well now, if we can kind of jump and we may come back a little later to the beginning of the strike. You were in that other strike way back, 66’ years when they had the injunction against the union, do you remember that one? Ed Gillis‐ Yes, yes sir I remember that. David Yellin‐ How did that start, why did that start, were you a member of the union then, or was there a union? Ed Gillis‐ Oh yeah I was a member then. David Yellin‐ When was the union started here do you remember? Ed Gillis‐ No it had been on, let me, I don’t want to tell a lie. It had been on 3 or 4 years, before I ever joined see. I joined just awhile before they got the injunction now that being about 7 or 8 months or longer. David Yellin‐ Now what injunction that was in 66’? Ed Gillis‐ Yeah. David Yellin‐ Or not one. Ed Gillis‐ In 66’ David Yellin‐ 66’. Wasn’t it 66? Ed Gillis‐ Jared Jengem was in there (muffled) I think they got the injunction. Bill Thomas‐ So you joined the union in 1966? Ed Gillis‐ Yes. David Yellin‐ And do you remember about it why did you join? Ed Gillis‐ Oh yeah I remember clearly why I joined. David Yellin‐ Please tell us. Ed Gillis‐ Because we just wasn’t getting justice. David Yellin‐ What do you mean by that. Ed Gillis‐ Well here is the thing, it’s like this right here. Truck drivers get out there they are white, they want to dictate they want to boast but foremen is supposed to give orders and then they get mad and cuss you out. David Yellin‐ The white drivers. Ed Gillis‐ Yeah, say things to you, then you say things back to him and then they come out of the truck and they want to fight. Then they will keep you out later hours, over time but you don’t get no pay for it. They tell you we will give you some time off. David Yellin‐ Now who tells you that, the foremen? Ed Gillis‐ Yeah the superintendent. Well if they let you off well you have to be (muffle) well by that time you just well have worked the whole day, they haven’t given you nothing. David Yellin‐ They don’t take you back to the yard. Ed Gillis‐ No. Bill Thomas‐ They just let you off. Ed Gillis‐ I am off at 2:00, well they won’t bring you back to the yard so you can get in their get your clothes, get your bag, you haven’t done nothing. Bill Thomas‐ How were you expected to get back just walk back? Ed Gillis‐ Catch a bus or come on in see. David Yellin‐ Then they just pay you just for that time you worked. Ed Gillis‐ You get paid for that day but that amounts for that same day, they give you off the next day. Well it got where you weren’t getting that. You weren’t getting that. Then foremen get contrary, if he don’t like it the truck don’t like it the truck driver over there and they get you out again. David Yellin‐ Who were the foremen were there any negro foremen. Ed Gillis‐ No they are all white foremen. David Yellin‐ all white foremen. Ed Gillis‐ Yes we got one colored guy out there now he is supposed to be a foremen but he is more a truck driver. They just done that for a sham after that union got in there. David Yellin‐ This is the latest thing. Ed Gillis‐ Yes. David Yellin‐ but now we are back in 66’? Ed Gillis‐ Yes. But that is the way those things run. David Yellin‐ How long were you in the sanitation department do you remember? Ed Gillis‐ I was in sanitation but I was asphalt all the way but we just worked with sanitation. Some Christmas when they get behind with the garbage until they go them trucks, as soon as they got them little scooters and a tub cart to push well I didn’t care no more about it see.

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