Up to 500 members of the traditionally moderate Association of Teachers and Lecturers in 15 further education colleges have requested to ballot for industrial action.
The ballot will follow the sector's pay offer of 2.3%.
Chris Wilson, chair of the FE committee at the ATL, said the offer of 2.3% was "just not acceptable", particularly when colleagues in sixth form colleges had recently settled for an offer of 3.5%.
"We are genuinely reluctant to take action, but we do now feel that we are being painted into a corner, and we are getting unprecedented support for strike action.
We are traditionally a reasonable bunch, and we are appealing to the employers to return to the table to negotiate," he said.
Such action would take the form of a one-day strike and would be part of a joint campaign with other FE unions including Natfhe and Unison, he explained.
Mr Wilson added that there was a new atmosphere within the union which has historically been one of the last to call for strike action.
"We are crossing a line, unless the employers take this seriously, this could be the beginning of a trend. A line has been crossed. The A for ATL is beginning to stand for assertiveness in teachers."
