Union members at the Coventry Telegraph and Hinckley Times have voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action in protest at what they see as poor staffing levels.

A 78 per cent majority of National Union of Journalists members were in favour of walk-outs to call for “proper staff numbers” in the newsroom.

The result was also backed up by a 96 per cent vote for action short of a strike in the same ballot. The result came despite major disruption to the ballot caused by two 48-hour national strikes by postal workers.

Chapel members at the Trinity Mirror-owned titles are due to meet today to decide what form of action to take in a bid to get the company around the negotiating table. One possible option would be to stage a protest on November 5 when the union embarks on its national Stand Up for Journalism day of action in defence of quality and standards in the profession.

The row has been simmering for months after journalists said they had had enough of years of redundancies and non-replacement of colleagues when they left – or lengthy delays when bosses did decide to fill the vacancy.

Talks in August involving conciliation service ACAS failed to find a solution and the chapel warned the company it needed to establish a minimum number of reporters to protect quality standards. General reporter numbers had fallen to 11 for an area with a population of more than 800,000.

NUJ northern organiser Chris Morley said: “This is a very powerful message that the chapel is sending to management which they will ignore at their peril. This is the most graphic example yet of NUJ member being willing to stand up for their profession.

“They are setting a lead that many other journalists who are fed up with the way managements play fast and loose with the quality of their journalism will want to follow.”

Trinity Mirror has declined to comment on the development.