Staff at Cheshire College South & West will take industrial action for four days over July and August in a dispute over pay, the University and College Union has announced.
An overwhelming 79% of UCU members who voted backed strike action in a ballot that had a turnout of 58%.
Staff across the three CCSW campuses in Crewe, Ellesmere Port and Chester will down tools on Monday July 7 and again on Thursday July 21, Friday July 22 and Tuesday August 26.
There will be pickets at the Crewe campus from 8am-11am on each day, where thousands of students from Crewe, Nantwich and across South Cheshire attend.
The dispute is over what the UCU claims is the college management’s refusal to provide staff a pay award for the current year, instead imposing a paltry one-off payment of just 1.5%.
They say staff at many other colleges across the region have received permanent increases, many of them above inflation.
The union said: “Well-paid senior managers are choosing to attack the living standards of hard-working staff even though the college is in good financial health.”
The UCU added that the college principal Jasbir Dhesi had a total remuneration package of £213,000 in 2024 – which is a £20,000 increase from the year before.
UCU regional official Matt Arrowsmith said: “Staff at Cheshire College South & West have no choice but to strike over management’s refusal to make a consolidated pay award.
“It is frankly sickening that a college run by a principal who has a total package worth hundreds of thousands of pounds is trying to get away with making staff accept a one-off payment of just 1.5%.
“College bosses now need to offer a proper, consolidated pay award if they want to avoid strike action and severe disruption on campuses.”
We have contacted Cheshire College for comment.
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