The union chapel also agreed unanimously to start the balloting process for industrial action in the event of compulsory redundancies. 

The company want to axe seven multi-media journalists’ posts and four photographers, as well as shutting the copy-taking unit and the electronic picture desk.

Last week journalists at the Post and Echo and associated weeklies wrote to management to say they could not take any more cuts.

Around 150 jobs were axed at the company in 2008 prompting opposition from local Members of Parliament.

Lawrence Shaw, NUJ Assistant Organiser, said: “The relentless cuts on Merseyside are damaging the quality of the papers and websites, and the local economy. They also lead to stress and other health and safety issues for the journalists left behind."

The action in Liverpool is part of a union-wide campaign against media cutbacks.

4 November 2009