According to Hodges, negotiations with Southernprint's management have reached an impasse that has left staff at the site with no alternative other than the ballot box, with January the earliest time that a vote can be practically conducted.

Hodges has been involved in the dispute since former owner Newsquest "unilaterally changed" the terms of employment for staff at Southernprint, reducing their redundancy entitlement, prior to the printer's sale to Wyndeham Press Group-owner Walstead Investments.

Hodges said that Unite's members had not agreed to the reduction in their redundancy pay, from two weeks for every year served to a starting point of statutory redundancy, and therefore Newsquest's change to the terms of employment represented a breach of contract.

The dispute had not been resolved at the time of the acquisition and subsequent talks have also failed to reach a conclusion.

He said: "It is the company that's taken something away from the members, and as such it's a breach of contract. The company says it's not, so we've exhausted the disputes procedure and even asked the company if they would be willing to go to binding arbitration, but they don't want to do that either.

"What option has that left us? This isn't a dispute over pay or something that's going to be an additional cost to the company - our members are being told to give up their contractual rights, which won't cost the company anything unless it makes people redundant.

"We are quite happy to go to our members and offer them binding arbitration but the company's said no to that, which leaves us no choice whatsoever other than to go to a ballot. We're not messing about, this isn't the gambit that the company seems to think it is, it's not a negotiating tactic, the staff are entitled to two weeks for every year - that's it."

Wyndeham Press Group could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.