Jayaben Desai - Union Leader

Jayaben Desai was born on the 2nd April 1933 in Gujarat, India. She lived in Tanzania East Africa before arriving in Britain in 1967 to join her husband with their two sons.

She took a job at Grunwick Film Processing Laboratories in north-west London—a factory where many of the workers were the minority population was the majority – most of the employees were Asian women. An incident that took place 20th August 1976 proved to be the turning point in Jayaben’s life. When she was asked – in reality more like ordered - to work

overtime she refused. This was the last straw for Jayaben, she’d had enough of working for minimum wage, in a place where she wasn’t allowed to speak with her workmates and had to ask permission to go and use the toilet. When her supervisor insulted her Jayaben walked out, sparking one of the most important strikes in British labour history.

“I’m not a robot,” she told her manager. “I’m a human being. If you cut me, do I not bleed?”

137 of her co-workers, many of them South Asian women, joined Jayaben. This was the beginning of the dispute known as the Grunwick Strike. The strikers demanded the right to join a trade union and be treated fairly and with dignity. The picket line was not typical – it was made up of mainly Asian women their leader standing just under 5ft in height. The strikers received support from unions across the UK who would travel and to potted on the picket line in solidarity. There were contentious scenes with violent clashes between strikers and the large police presence.

Jayaben was vocal she brought attention to the cause and even though the Grunwick Strike ended after 690 days without the workers’ demands being met Jayaben didn’t accept defeat. She said –

“We haven’t won but we feel that this brick is our contribution to building the trade union movement”

Jayaben Desai passed away on the 23rd December 2010.

Jayaben Desai

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