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.

‘What you are running is not a factory, it is a zoo. But in a zoo there are many types of animals. Some are monkeys who dance on your fingertips. Others are lions who can bite your head off. We are the lions, Mr Manager.

“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 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 – at first it was made up of mainly Asian women, with their leader Jayaben standing just under 5ft tall at the forefront. The strikers received support from trade unions across the UK who'd travel to north London to join 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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