ANGRY lecturers at colleges in York and North Yorkshire went on the picket line today for a national strike, affecting hundreds of students across the region.

At York College, striking staff picketed the campus, which was largely empty of students today as full and part-time classes were cancelled.

The college, in Tadcaster Road, had been unable to guarantee the safety of students on the site and had urged them to take study leave.

Unions are claiming further education workers do not get paid as much as teachers in schools, and want the gap to be bridged.

Lecturers were angered by a 2.3 per cent pay offer from the Association of Colleges, after teachers were offered 3.5 per cent.

Mike Galloway, York College principal, said he was disappointed that industrial action was being taken as it impacted directly on students.

But he also indicated that the chronic under-funding of the further education sector was creating strains which "need to be addressed".

On the picket line at York College, Chris Greenfield, a Unison representative and part-time computing lecturer, said he was "very pleased at the turnout", saying over 70 per cent of staff and about 97 percent of students had stayed away.

Another Unison representative, Graham Warriner, said: "I've worked 15 years as a lecturer. This is the second time I've come out on strike. Members are now militant. We are just demanding fairness in pay. This is a very successful strike action."

Mike Saunders, branch chair of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), and a sports science lecturer at the college, said: "This has been a very successful strike action and very well supported by staff." It was demoralising for lecturers to see their teacher colleagues earn so much more for the same job.

"We are hoping to make the management and governors at the college reconsider the offer they have made to us," he said.

"Lecturers just want to get on with teaching but we are angry enough with this to take strike action. We have come to the end of our tether."

Updated: 11:56 Tuesday, November 05, 2002