Journalists for the Independent and the Independent on Sunday voted to take industrial action in response to proposed layoffs following the Independent News & Media's failure to find enough volunteers for redundancy, Media Guardian reported Friday. In November, INM announced 90 jobs were to be cut, of which 60 would come from editorial staff.

In a vote by members of the National Union of Journalists, 80 percent of more than 150 members were in favour of industrial action and 64 percent supported striking against the proposals. The vote has resulted in a mandatory chapel meeting for union members on Friday March 6, from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. - peak production times for the paper.

"We understand the union's position in wanting to avoid compulsory redundancies...but as a management team we are obliged to look carefully at reducing our costs while revenues are declining, in common with elsewhere in our marketplace," Imogen Haddon, managing editor of the Independent and the Independent on Sunday stated in response to the decision made by the NUJ, Media Guardian reported.

While the NUJ continues to report similar strikes elsewhere in the country, including 140 members at the Yorkshire Post Newspapers holding two four-day strikes, Barry Fitzpatrick, the NUJ head of publishing maintains that "we are extending a further invitation to management to discuss ways to avoid compulsory redundancy."