- Bhairavi Desai
Bhairavi Desai (pronounced BAY-rah-vee Dah-SIGH) is the founding member of the Taxi Workers Alliance in New York, a
union representing the approximately 3,000 taxi drivers inNew York City .Early life
Desai was born in
Gujrat ,India , and came with her parents toHarrison, New Jersey when she was 6 years old. Her father was a lawyer in India, but was unable to find work and had to consequently work at a grocery store.Wadler, Joyce. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9501E4D91E3EF93BA35751C1A96F958260 "PUBLIC LIVES; An Unlikely Organizer as Cabdrivers Unite"] , "The New York Times ",December 8 ,1999 . AccessedDecember 30 ,2007 .]She received a degree in Women's Studies from
Rutgers University and following that, worked at Manavi, the South Asian women's organization in New Jersey that worked with victims ofdomestic violence .She then moved to working for the rights of Asian workers by joining the Committee Against Asian American Violence in 1996. In 1998, she and others set up the NYTWA with an initial membership of 700 workers.
She currently resides in
Jersey City, New Jersey .Work with taxi drivers
Her first success came in May 1998 when the first strike in 30 years was called by the yellow cabs. Over 90% of New York taxi drivers joined the strike to protest against unfair regulations, medical checkups and health insurance for the drivers.
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
