
Jayaben Desai
Jayaben Desai came to the UK in 1968, and was a key activist during the Grunwick dispute (1976–8)
Part of the external The British Library oral history collection
About
Jayaben Desai was born in Gujarat (India) in 1933. She later moved to Tanzania, joining her husband, eventually coming to London in October 1968. In 1974 Desai started work at the Grunwick Film Processing Laboratory in Willesden (north London). She took a leading role in the Grunwick dispute (1976–8). In this news clip we hear about Jayaben Desai's protest, as well as how union membership was sought to help fight for improved workers' rights in 1976.
Jayaben Desai was interviewed in 1996 for the BBC Radio 4 programme Milestones, a series of discussion programmes in which key players in Britain's post-war social change discuss the legacy of important events with analysts, critics and historians. This extract comes from an episode in which participants talked about their recollections and the importance of the Grunwick strike. The radio broadcast recording is archived at the British Library under collection reference number H8096/3, © BBC.
Listen to Jayaben Desai talking about protest and resistance during this news clip.
Interview conducted by the BBC, 1996.
I: On the 20th of August 1976, Jayaben Desai walked out of Grunwick, a film processing company employing 500 workers at two small factories in the Brent area of north London. They developed films under the True Colour and Bonus Pull labels. Snapshot processing being a seasonal business, overtime was often demanded at short notice in the summer. And when extra work appeared as she was preparing to leave that afternoon, Mrs Desai protested, and, joined by her son Sunil, walked out. Not quite five foot tall, not male, not white, not wearing western clothes, not always speaking English with her Gujarati workmates, Mrs Desai made an unusual shop steward, not least because she first had to find a union to join. Advised by her local Citizens Advice Bureau, she plumped for the moderate Clerical Workers' Union, APEX.
JD: We are here to ask you to put pressure on TUC to cut off vital services to George Ward, and to support the resumption of mass picketing, which we do not want to do, but we have no other alternatives. It is very hard to stand outside on picket line for another winter. I said before, and I say again and again, it is very hard to stand on picket line.
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