Union members at Trinity Mirror Midlands have called for a ballot over strike action in response to the company’s recent redundancy announcement.

Last week, Trinity Mirror revealed plans for a major shake-up of operations in its Midlands division, including the loss of around 65 editorial roles.

A 90-day consultation is now under way with 300 staff – who were told they would have to apply for jobs – and the company says it hopes to avoid compulsory redundancies.

The National Union of Journalists’ chapels at the affected centres have written to management, expressing anger at the proposals.

Their letter said: “The chapels condemn the company’s decision to make people reapply for their jobs if they want to remain as employees of the company.

“This creates uncertainty for employees and their families and is hugely damaging to staff morale.

“The NUJ welcomes new technology but deplores the sledgehammer way it is being introduced as a knee-jerk reaction to the economic down turn, without indicating how this will enhance revenue raising opportunities.

“We do not believe our readers will be best served by reduced numbers of journalists expected to take on extra work which will inevitably leave them less time for news gathering and investigation.

“Further to this we have many concerns and issues with the way this is being handled, lack of clarity in many areas including job descriptions, conflicting messages from managers, and, in particular, no right of appeal over reassignment by editors’ panel.”

No-one was available from Trinity Mirror for comment.