The TSSA rail union’s elections (plural) have seen the TSSA’s general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust accused — by no less a figure than a former assistant general secretary, on the record — of “trashing the union’s reputation” by “playing every trick in the book” to annul or overturn results that went against her allies.

Rail union acting a little suspicious

The union infuriated members, along with many staff and officers, during the summer when it announced that its elections for the key positions of president and treasurer would be re-run. This came after long delaying (then never announcing) the result — and suspending one of the left-wing candidates. Former AGS Steve Coe accused the ‘Eslamdoust regime’ of nullifying the elections because the two candidates close to Eslamdoust had lost heavily to left-wing challengers Duncan Bates and Paul Mangan. Concerns were raised as soon as the ballot closed, when the union announced that a ‘serious’ complaint had been made against one of the challengers, with no details ever provided, even to the accused, which raised alarms among the members. According to insiders, the election was annulled just forty minutes before the result was due to be announced.

Then, last month, TSSA insiders complained that the management was again tampering with the new presidential election because the result wasn’t going the way it wanted, after the union issued a notice just before the scheduled close of voting that it was prolonging the presidential election by a week, supposedly ‘to ensure that all members have a fair opportunity’ to vote.”

One insider told Skwawkbox:

Here we go again, looks like Adam [Wilson, the third candidate in the original election] is winning so they’re trying to tout for more votes.

And last week, with the ballot long closed and results already well overdue, TSSA’s management sent out a notification to members telling them that the result was delayed — supposedly because of a staff member’s sick leave:

Rail union elections — the re-run

The re-run of the presidential election was completed on 22 October — after the one-week extension. Skwawkbox understands that the votes were counted and verified by the scrutineer around 28 Oct. The TSSA’s rules require the results to be announced on completion of vote counting, but at the time of writing, more than two weeks later, there has been no declaration.

Insiders say it was common knowledge inside the union that Adam Wilson, the challenger to Eslamdoust’s close ally, won the election and that the TSSA management has known the result for ages. They now say that Eslamdoust has ‘cracked under pressure’ and today confirmed that Wilson did, as predicted, win handsomely, with more than 45% of a vote that was spread among 3 candidates.

But the election chaos is not quite over; the union’s head office has announced that the election for the position of Treasurer – which was annulled alongside the first 2025 presidential contest – will now also be re-run.

Wider chaos

The election contests are just one strand of the chaos within TSSA under its current management. The management, which has been brought in and recommended to members by the TSSA executive despite having no relevant experience, and after alleged threats that they had ‘better select Eslamdoust or [they’d] have to answer to Andi Fox’, a senior TSSA figure and close confidante of previous general secretary Manuel Cortes — Eslamdoust and her team have:

been repeatedly accused by union staff, who have been in dispute with their employer for more than a year, of bullying and using anti-union tactics against them – and of crossing their picket line during strike actionbeen accused of paying off disgraced former managers of the union who she claimed she was going to sort out after years of sexual harassment and mismanagement under her predecessor Manuel Cortessuspended senior union figures not in Eslamdoust’s camp just after they won key elections or awards from the unionlost a unanimous vote of no confidence among TSSA staff and another unanimous vote by one of TSSA’s biggest member branchestried to bypass TSSA staff in their dispute by going straight to the GMB union that represents them at workattacked the GMB in the national press, and then attacked striking staff in an email to members‘summarily derecognised’ the TSSA’s women’s group, which accused Eslamdoust and her allies of perpetuating the abuse and harassment that characterised the regime of her predecessor Manuel Cortesbarred delegates and members from last year’s TSSA annual conference and blocked a no-confidence motion brought against herattacked delegates at the 2025 conference as ‘parochial’ for wanting to raise these issues

Members and staff say that far from putting right the sexual harassment, bullying, misogyny and abuse under Cortes, which were exposed in a searing report by Baroness Helena Kennedy, Eslamdoust and her allies have continued and even escalated the war on the union’s staff.

Strike action is back

TSSA is now facing three days of renewed strike action this month after GMB union reps representing TSSA staff were suspended. Announcing the strike, which was passed by a massive 86% of staff on a 73% turnout, the GMB said that:

This strike is an escalation of a longstanding row about the union’s toxic workplace culture, overseen by General Secretary Maryam Eslamdoust. It will also mark the second time that TSSA staff have taken industrial action over bullying and intimidation by management, and a lack of fair process…

The bullying and intimidation GMB members working for TSSA are experiencing from management is seriously affecting their mental and physical health. As a trade union leader, you would expect Ms Eslamdoust would be the first to call out this type of treatment, making her own behaviour as a manager all the more shocking.

TSSA’s leadership have made no attempt to engage with staff representatives to resolve the dispute since the results of the strike ballot were announced. This cavalier attitude shows an irresponsible level of contempt towards staff and TSSA members, who will suffer as a result of avoidable strike action.

Skwawkbox has previously approached the TSSA for comment about these issues and allegations, with no response.

Featured image via the Canary

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