STRIKERS from the long-running Care UK health workers’ dispute in Doncaster lobbied the Tory Party conference in Birmingham yesterday in their continuing fight for justice.

The workers, who worked for NHS contracted by Doncaster Council to support local people with learning difficulties, have launched their latest three-week strike.

Tory competition laws forced the council to put the contract out to tender.

Care UK Unison shop steward Roger Hutt travelled to Birmingham to take part in yesterday’s lobby.

He told the Star: “It’s been enlightening and we upset some of the Tories.”

“To be fair, at least some of them were prepared to listen to us. We told them they put profit before people and we put people before profit.”

Essex-based privateer Care UK undercut the NHS and won the contract and the NHS staff were transferred to Care UK in September last year.

Within three months Care UK, which is owned by London-based capital investment operator Bridgepoint, began slashing wages and attacking working conditions.

Mr Hutt explained that five of his colleagues had quit Care UK, unable to survive on drastically reduced wages.

“Their combined length of service of the five is over 100 years,” he explained.

“That amount of knowledge, compassion, empathy and caring simply cannot be replaced. They left heartbroken.”

The staff, who are members of public service union Unison, voted overwhelmingly for strike action and in the last nine months have staged a series of stoppages.

They have won support in the Doncaster district where they have staged marches and rallies.

The current three week strike will make the dispute the longest in the history of the health service.

The strike includes events to raise the profile of the dispute, including yesterday’s lobby.

Donations to the strike fund should go to Unison, Jenkinson House, White Rose Way, Doncaster DN4 5GJ.

peterlazenby@peoples-press.com