OH/077
Reference code
OH/077
Level of description
Item
Title
Rai, Ajit
Scope and content
"
Dismissed and they couldn't find a job anywhere.\"" The workers at Woolf's were almost all immigrants. The vast majority were Asians (Indian and Pakistani) and the rest were Irish and Polish. There was no trade union. He moved to Woolf's factory in Barking for a time but came back to Southall to work in the laboratories at Nestle and then as a quality control inspector at Sutherland Forge. He was sacked from there for recruiting for the union. He bought a house in 1959 and his wife, son and brother came over to join him. In the early 1960s he started his own business - a mobile shop. At that time there were few shops selling Indian goods. He went on to open his own shop at 13a The Broadway. In 1957 Ajit Rai was one of the men who decided to do something about the problems faced by the Indian community in Southall and started the Indian Workers Association in Southall. Through the IWA, Ajit Rai became one of the leaders of the local Indian community."""
Dismissed and they couldn't find a job anywhere.\"" The workers at Woolf's were almost all immigrants. The vast majority were Asians (Indian and Pakistani) and the rest were Irish and Polish. There was no trade union. He moved to Woolf's factory in Barking for a time but came back to Southall to work in the laboratories at Nestle and then as a quality control inspector at Sutherland Forge. He was sacked from there for recruiting for the union. He bought a house in 1959 and his wife, son and brother came over to join him. In the early 1960s he started his own business - a mobile shop. At that time there were few shops selling Indian goods. He went on to open his own shop at 13a The Broadway. In 1957 Ajit Rai was one of the men who decided to do something about the problems faced by the Indian community in Southall and started the Indian Workers Association in Southall. Through the IWA, Ajit Rai became one of the leaders of the local Indian community."""