Care UK must be one of the most inappropriately named companies in Britain. Motivated by profit, it is prepared to exploit services to people with learning difficulties and mental health illnesses to that end.

It is also attempting to exploit the caring staff who enable those people to survive and have an independent life.

But Care UK hadn't reckoned on the determination of the staff to fight back. More than 150 care workers, whose NHS jobs were taken over by Essex-based Care UK, are today in the middle of their second week of strike action to protect their pay, working conditions and the services they provide for the people they care for.

Care UK's action could be a blueprint for what is happening to the NHS across Britain. The NHS care workers, who are members of public service union Unison, were contracted by Doncaster Council to provide care for people who need help to maintain an independent life.

For 68 years the system has worked. Then came Tory privatisation, enthusiastically supported by the Liberal Democrats. Doncaster Council was forced to put the work out to tender and Care UK undercut the bid from the NHS, winning the contract late last year. Within weeks NHS staff jobs were transferred to Care UK, who announced massive wage cuts - £6,000 in some cases - reductions in holiday entitlement and cuts in sick pay.

The company blatantly ignored regulations which protect the pay and conditions of workers whose jobs are transferred from one employer to another. The staff resisted and voted for strike action.

Roger Hutt, one of the strikers regularly picketing Care UK's Doncaster offices, is 51 and lives in Doncaster. A senior support worker, he has been a carer for 32 years. "We do everything for the people we care for," he said. "We look after their day to day general welfare, like making sure they are bathed, showered, dressed and fed.

"We look after their clinical needs and their general well-being. We are like surrogate parents really. Sometimes you think 'there but for the grace of God' - they could be my brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles or father. We treat them like our own family."

Roger's take-home pay is about £1,700 a month. From that he pays a £650 mortgage as well as council tax and rising energy bills. He and his wife have a 17-year-old son at school and his spouse, with a debilitating illness, has had to reduce her job as a warehouse clerk to part-time working. Care UK plans to axe his wage by £500 a month. "That's more or less my mortgage," he said. He believes Care UK is demeaning the professional care he and his colleagues provide, all in the name of private profit.

Claire Smith is one of his colleagues. She is 46 and lives alone at her home in Doncaster and has been a care support worker for 28 years. "I'm a lone worker, working with people with learning disabilities, mental health issues and sometimes challenging behaviour," she said.

"I support them so they can live as normal a life as possible, to have a quality of life, go out into the community, keep the house secure, shopping - everything."

She takes home around £1,500 a month, though it can vary depending on bank holiday working and the number of 24-hour stopover shifts she works.

Care UK plans to axe her pay by £300-plus a month. "I've had to join an agency so I can work six days a week instead of five," she said. "I've got a mortgage, a loan for my car. Like most people I live up to my wage."

She has her own health problems, including a thyroid condition, meaning she does have to have time off work for treatment but the company is axing the first three days of sick pay.

"I'll just have to go to work sick," she said.

Roger worries about the future of his 17-year-old son if firms like Care UK succeed. "I know full well that privatisation of the NHS means private firms making a profit from our hard work and also from the people we care for," he said. "It is abhorrent. It is heart-breaking.

"My son is going to leave school next year and companies like this will be offering the minimum wage, zero hours. What legacy is that for our children?"

Both Roger and Claire fully support the strike. "We are on the picket line with a heavy heart," said Roger. "We are hard-working, decent people - and they do not recognise us."

n Unison has launched a hardship fund to support the Care UK strikers. Cheques can be made payable to Unison Doncaster 20511 and can be sent to Unison, Jenkinson House, White Rose Way, Doncaster DN4 5GJ or you can ring (01302) 366-084.