Journalists at the Independent titles could disrupt coverage of the budget next month with a strike over pay.
Ballot papers went out on Friday over whether NUJ members at the titles are prepared to take industrial action. A decision will be known on 14 March.
This leaves time for staff to call a walkout before the Chancellor delivers his budget statement on 22 March.
The Independent titles are understood to have a relatively high proportion of NUJ members among editorial staff — around two-thirds. Journalists have rejected a pay offer of 2.5 per cent and put in a claim for five per cent.
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Meanwhile, at the Mirror titles, a threatened strike over redundancy terms has been called off after their union, the British Association of Journalists, failed to get a majority of members to vote in favour of action.
Out of the 136 BAJ members at the Daily Mirror, Sunday Mirror and People, 49 voted in favour of a strike and 37 against. Sixty-seven were in favour of action short of a strike and 17 against.
In a letter to members, BAJ general secretary Steve Turner said: "It would be morally wrong to take industrial action unless the majority of BAJ members at MGN voted for the action."
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Turner has called the redundancy terms for 39 journalists who recently lost their jobs on the titles "the worst on Fleet Street apart from The Independent".
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