STRIKING lecturers at Accrington and Rossendale College will be putting their own jobs and many others at risk, college bosses warned today.

They hope members of lecturers' union NATFHE will reconsider their decision for an indefinite stoppage from one week on Monday.

Contingency plans are being drawn up and the college says everything possible will be done to ensure classes are covered and services to students maintained.

The all-out strike in the run-up to vital exams was officially endorsed by a majority show of hands at a NATFHE branch meeting at the college yesterday.

Just one vote had clinched a strike ballot, with 47 lecturers for and 46 against the stoppage.

The dispute is in support of branch secretary Pat Walsh, who was made redundant from his history teaching post before Christmas. NATFHE, which has 109 full-time lecturers at the college, said it remained ready to negotiate with the college to find a way forward. The union is calling on part-time staff, who are members of the branch but could not vote in the ballot, to support the strike.

A NATFHE spokesperson said: "It was raised at the meeting that students will suffer and in answer to that someone else said students will suffer if we are sacked.

"Pat's students are suffering now and he is teaching them in his own time because he cares"

College deputy principal Tim Atkinson said college managers were disappointed: "We hope NATFHE members will reconsider their decision given that in the current financial climate they will be putting both their own jobs and the jobs of many other less well paid staff in the college at risk. Colleges are in a very competitive situation."

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