Further education lecturers have voted two to one in favour of striking over this year's pay claim, it was announced today.
FE lecturer leaders warned that the strikes could be the first in a long campaign.
Up to 280 colleges across the country now face two days of disruption on May 28 and 29, when 32,000 lecturers strike to protest against an "insulting" 1.5% pay offer by college employers.
Members of the lecturers' union Natfhe are demanding parity of pay with schoolteachers.
Natfhe, along with five other college unions, submitted a pay claim for a substantial increase for all lecturers and managers this year to close the 10% gap between lecturers' and schoolteachers' pay. The college employers' body, the Association of Colleges, has pledged to work toward this claim, but only offered a rise of 1.5% in negotiations held last month.
In the ballot result announced today, more than 65% of lecturers taking part voted for strike action, a majority of 2:1 in favour.
Barry Lovejoy, Natfhe national colleges official, said: "We're not at all surprised by the result. It indicates people's immense anger and determination that things have got to change for the good of the FE system itself and for the quality of service the students receive. I think this is a wake up call to the government and employers to sort FE out before it's too late."
Lecturers' leaders are meeting employers again on June 11.
"Our annual conference will decide on an action plan to back up this demand for parity. I think it's fair to say that unless there is significant improvement, we could be seeing the start of a lengthy campaign which may stretch into the new term," added Mr Lovejoy.
Paul Mackney, the union's general secretary said: "College staff have been pulled from pillar to post. Our message to both the employers and the government is, between you sort this mess out. This strike will be a public demonstration of how angry lecturers are over the appallingly low pay levels in FE. Let's hope the employers and the government finally get the message."
Earlier this week, Mr Mackney made an urgent appeal to the Education Secretary, Estelle Morris, to release some of the £1.4bn underspend from last year's education budget to ease the crisis in cash-strapped FE colleges.
