Journalists in Shropshire are threatening to ballot for industrial action claiming managers are refusing to answer their questions about job cuts.

Midland News Association, publisher of the Shropshire Star and the Express and Star, is looking for 70 compulsory redundancies after a plan to cut 135 jobs by voluntary redundancy failed to get enough takers.

The National Union of Journalists chapel in Shropshire wants to know how many of those job losses will fall in its editorial department but says managers have so far failed to respond.

It says that if it doesn’t get an answer by close of play on Monday – or if any NUJ member is given notice putting them at risk of redundancy – the chapel will trigger a ballot for industrial action.

David Burrows, NUJ Father of Chapel at Shropshire Newspapers, said: “We are disappointed that almost two weeks after it was announced that the company was entering into compulsory redundancies, there is still uncertainty surrounding the fate of the editorial departments on the Shropshire Star and Shropshire Newspapers’ weekly titles.

“We have asked the company to respond promptly to a series of questions we have put to them and should they fail to do so we will, regretfully, be forced to ballot our members over industrial action.”

Express and Star Ltd managing director Alan Harris has so far been unavailable for comment.