Journalists at Newsquest titles in York have voted in favour of strike action over the threat of compulsory redundancies.

The result of a vote by National Union of Journalists members revealed yesterday showed that 85pc were in favour of strike action.

The NUJ says that journalists at The Press, County Press and Gazette and Herald titles asked management to guarantee there would be no compulsory redundancies as part of a wider jobs cull across Newsquest’s UK newspapers.

The chapel claims management did not give it this guarantee.

This vote now gives the NUJ York chapel the legal right to hold industrial action should they choose.

NUJ northern assistant organiser Jenny Lennox said: “The ballot result shows a clear determination by our members to stand up in defence of any colleague under threat of compulsory redundancy.

“We need to see clear guarantees from management that nobody will be forced to leave.”

In a separate ballot, members voted by 72pc in favour of taking some form of industrial action to fight a pay freeze imposed by the company. Union members will meet later this week to decide on the next stages in their campaign.

Newsquest York had not responded to a request for comment at the time of publication.