Journalists across all three of the group's tabloids -- the Daily Star, Daily Express and Sunday Express -- are set to stage action over the coming weeks in a continuing war with the titles' proprietor following a ballot of National Union of Journalists members employed by the company.
Out of 115 staff at the ballot, 83% of staff voted in favour of taking industrial action without striking, while 63% of staff voted in favour of strike action.
The action is set to begin next Friday, March 22, when the union will hold a three-hour mandatory meeting between 5pm and 8pm -- crucial production times for all three newspapers. This will be repeated on the following two Fridays if no agreement is made with the company.
Jeremy Dear, general secretary of the NUJ, said: "Staff want a significant pay rise to take into account the fact that they are down by 150 staff on this time last year, and that working conditions are substantially worse."
"Northern & Shell thinks nothing of spending £300,000 on a photoshoot of the inside of a house belonging to the cast of 'EastEnders' but won't pay £150,000 to increase staff's pay. This puts into perspective the feeling among journalists at the newspapers."
Other factors include a boast by the company that it has made a £68m profit; health and safety issues; and the fact that contracts that are waiting to be renegotiated have not yet been settled, despite continued talks.
Desmond managed to narrowly avoid strike action a year ago when he made a raft of cuts at the newspapers. NUJ members were set to walk out after a review of the business saw 145 jobs axed, but action was avoided when Desmond agreed to stop there.
Dear said the NUJ would rather reach a negotiation with the newspaper than stage a strike. He added that the union is meeting with Express Newspapers' editorial director Paul Ashford and managing editor Alex Bannister this afternoon to try to settle the matter.
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