COURAGEOUS Care UK strikers voiced their defiance of profit-hungry health service privateers yesterday when they put on a picket line party for their 81st day of strike action.

They vowed to fight on to the bitter end against the company which has slashed wages, holidays and working conditions in pursuit of ever more dividends for shareholders.

The strikers said Care UK was becoming a “toxic” name in the world of healthcare because of its greed, its treatment of its staff, and the driving down of standards of care.

Employed by the NHS on a contract to Doncaster Council to provide support for people with learning difficulties, their jobs were privatised when Care UK undercut the NHS bid for the renewal of the contact, using Tory competition laws. 

They responded to the company’s attack on their pay and conditions with strike action, which yesterday became the longest strike in the history of health-care in Britain.

The party was followed by a rally at Doncaster Trades Club, where speaker after speaker pledged commitment to the strike. 

Care UK has drafted in poorly-trained scab labour to do strikers’ jobs, accommodating them in hotels.

Rally chairman Jim Bell from Unison said the 81st day of strike action meant the workers had “crossed a line — but not the finishing line.”

“We are on a journey,” he said. “We have turned a little dispute in Doncaster into a national and international cause celebre.”

Unison Yorkshire regional head of health Tony Pearson praised the strikers’ “brilliant, relentless determination.”

He said: “The NHS is the jewel in the crown of the labour movement. The Tories are trying to destroy it.”

Caroline Bellamy, from general union GMB in Manchester, said the Care UK strikers were an “inspiration” to workers everywhere, including her colleagues in a Stockport factory where the union was organising.

Train driver Gary Waring from Hull, a member of Aslef, said: “What we are seeing is an assault by the Tory government on the living standards of the whole of the working class. What we are seeing from the Care UK strikers is a fight-back We are behind you. We will support you,” he said. And presented a cheque to the strikers’ fighting fund.

Strikers are to meet Labour leader Ed Miliband in his Doncaster North constituency office on Friday.