A two-day strike that had been due to take place this week was suspended after management at the Birmingham and Coventry centres pledged there would be no compulsory redundancies as part of the current major restructuring exercise.

But the union says the company has failed to deliver on its promise to inform journalists whether they had got the jobs they wanted by this Monday and now intends to hold further industrial action in the form of a disruptive chapel meeting next Thursday.

Trinity Mirror Midlands regional managing director Steve Brown today expressed disappointment at the move saying: "The distraction of industrial action is not exactly going to speed things along."

NUJ Northern Regional Organiser Chris Morley said: "The last thing the chapels want to do is to be forced into taking action. But management's failure to deliver on its promises leaves our members under a huge cloud of uncertainty.

""Very few people are sure about their role, and even those who want to leave don’t yet know whether they will be allowed to go.

"This is an incredibly difficult time for all our members, and the company is making things 10 times worse by failing to deliver on its commitments to staff

Mr Brown said: "We're very surprised and disappointed with this decision. We confirmed some time ago that there would be no compulsory redundancies, we have communicated time-scales consistently and we are nearing the end of a very complex process."