Healthcare workers in Yorkshire launched their fourth strike yesterday in defence of their wages and working conditions.

The 150 members of public service union Unison look after people with learning difficulties and mental health problems, helping them maintain independence in their own homes.

They were employed by the NHS under contract to provide the service for Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council.

The council had to put the work out to tender as the coalition government rushed to privatise as much of the NHS as it could before next year’s general election.

Profiteer Care UK undercut the existing NHS team and the workers jobs were transferred to the contractor last year.

Within weeks cash-hungry Care UK announced wage cuts of up to £7,000 a year and a savage attack on overtime and working conditions.

Backed by their union the workers voted for strike action. They have staged two one-week strikes and a two-day strike.

This latest four-day strike began with a rally at Doncaster Trades Club.

Support is building among the public and other unions. Families of the people the workers care for are also backing the strikers.

There are regular pickets of Care UK’s offices in Doncaster.

But the company has brought in scab labour, paying for hotel accommodation.

Unison regional organiser Jim Bell said: “Our members are being forced to make great personal sacrifices, but they feel they have no alternative if they are to protect their jobs and the service to vulnerable people which these pay cuts would effectively destroy.

“The way that Care UK is behaving in Doncaster is ringing alarm bells across the country.

“Unison’s general secretary Dave Prentis has pledged continued support for our members in Doncaster and will be on the picket line in the near future.

“Unison is also urging the Labour Party to give its full support for these workers because if Care UK gets away with such savage pay cuts in Doncaster, no care service in the country will be safe.”

Local MPs Ed Miliband, Rosie Winterton and Caroline Flint have called on Care UK to resolve the dispute.