[BITList] Willesden walk out

[John Feltham]

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Desai  [née Patel],  Jayaben Suryakant  (1933-2010), factory worker, trade unionist, and teacher, was born in Dharmaj, Gujarat, India, on 2 April 1933, into an affluent landowning family, the only daughter and second of three children of Gordhanbhai Govindbhai Patel and his wife, Kamlaben Patel. She was strongly influenced by her mother, from whom she imbibed a concern for justice. As a schoolchild, she supported the Indian movement for independence from British rule. After the death of her younger brother, the family moved to Bombay, where Jayaben enrolled in a tailoring college. On 24 June 1955 she married Suryakant Desai, the manager of a tyre factory in Tanganyika. She stayed on in Bombay to complete her course, and joined Suryakant in Dar-es-Salaam in 1957. They had two sons, Sunil (later Shivkumar) and Rajiv. Following the independence of Tanganyika and the introduction of 'Africanization' policies, the Desai family, who held British passports, returned to Nadiad in Gujarat in 1964. After four years in India, Suryakant headed for London in March 1968, where Jayaben and the children joined him in October 1968.

Suryakant Desai found a menial job, while Jayaben worked in a laundrette. She then worked as a sewing machinist in a sweatshop before she went on to work at Grunwick, a film processing plant in Willesden, north London, in 1974. The family, who had a comfortable lifestyle in Tanzania and India, experienced a profound dislocation in their class position and social status. Jayaben Desai refused to accept the treatment meted out to low-paid migrant workers in the factories of the day, particularly the managerial control and compulsory overtime at short notice that was imposed at Grunwick.

On 20 August 1976, a male worker at Grunwick was sacked for working slowly. That same afternoon, when Desai was confronted with a demand for overtime, she responded, 'What you are running here is not a factory, it is a zoo. There are many types of animals in a zoo. Some are monkeys who dance to your tune, others are lions who can bite your head off. We are those lions, Mr Manager. I have had enough-I want my freedom!'  (interview, 11 Oct 2007). Desai and other workers who walked out that day joined the Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staff (APEX), and began picketing Grunwick. Soon they were joined by over 100 workers. Their demands came to be centred on the right to union recognition and collective bargaining, and their cause was taken up by the wider trade union movement. The Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service attempted mediation, and on 10 March 1977 recommended union recognition, which was rejected by George Ward, the owner of Grunwick.

Desai began travelling across the country seeking solidarity from trade unionists and workers. Her eloquence won many supporters for the cause and the profile of the Grunwick dispute increased during that spring. In June 1977 the Grunwick strike committee, supported by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and APEX, called for mass pickets. Over the next two months thousands of workers from across the country, including the Yorkshire miners led by Arthur Scargill, assembled in the narrow streets near Grunwick. In a huge policing operation, the Special Patrol Group, which was to play a major role during the miners' strike of 1984-5, was deployed in an industrial dispute for the first time. As clashes between the police and the demonstrators escalated the Grunwick dispute received wide, and largely negative, media coverage. Desai became a familiar figure on television screens. This publicity led the Labour government to appoint a committee of inquiry led by Lord Scarman to gather evidence and make recommendations on the dispute.

When in mid-June 1977 the Union of Postal Workers voted to boycott post from Grunwick, a powerful weapon against the mail-order firm, victory seemed within the grasp of the strikers. However, the newly created National Association for Freedom organized the delivery of Grunwick's processed films across the country, in what was known as 'Operation Pony Express'. On 25 August the Scarman report recommended union recognition and the reinstatement of the sacked workers. But the report was rejected by Ward. Desai wanted to resume mass picketing, but the TUC and APEX withdrew their support. She, along with three other strikers, mounted a hunger strike outside the TUC headquarters in November 1977. Disillusioned with the trade union, the strike committee announced the end of the dispute on 14 July 1978. As Desai commented afterwards, 'Trade union support is like honey on the elbow; you can see it, you can smell it, but you can never taste it!'  (interview, 11 Oct 2007).

Desai went on to teach at Brent Indian Association and pioneered an Asian dressmaking course at Harrow College. The GMB union (successor of APEX) recognized her contribution with a gold badge of honour at their national conference in June 2007. She died of pneumonia at Middlesex Manor Nursing Centre, Wembley, on 23 December 2010 and was survived by her husband and their son Shivkumar, Rajiv having predeceased her. A memorial service was held at Golders Green crematorium. Some of her ashes were scattered on the Thames at Bermondsey. By the time of her death she was celebrated for her leadership of the Grunwick dispute, which was one of the biggest mobilizations of trade union members and ordinary workers in support of ethnic minority women workers. Her contribution also provided the imperative for the trade unions of the day to take up the cause of migrant workers.

Sundari Anitha 

Sources  J. Rogaly, Grunwick (1977) + J. Dromey and G. Taylor, Grunwick: the workers' story (1978) + T. Durkin, Grunwick: bravery and betrayal (1978) + The Guardian (28 Dec 2010); (29 Dec 2010); (30 Dec 2010); (31 Dec 2010) + Statesman [India] (28 Dec 2010) + The Times (3 Jan 2011) + The Herald [Glasgow] (5 Jan 2011) + Daily Mirror (7 Jan 2011) + Morning Star (7 Jan 2011) + The Independent (21 Feb 2011) + private information (2014) + personal knowledge (2014) [Suryakant Desai, husband] + d. cert.
Likenesses  G. Wood, photograph, 1977, Getty Images [see illus.] · photograph, 1977, Rex Features, London · H. Sykes, photographs, priv. coll.; repro. in homersykes.photoshelter.com/,  accessed on 16 Aug 2013 · obituary photographs
Wealth at death  under £16,000: probate, 14 Nov 2011, CGPLA Eng. & Wales



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