EXCLUSIVE: TSSA union accused of delaying presidential election (again) ‘because it got wrong result’

The TSSA union infuriated members and 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, after long delaying (and never announcing) the result – and suspending one of the left-wing candidates.

What is the TSSA up to now?

Union insiders – including a former TSSA general secretary Steve Coe, on the record – accused the management regime of general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust of playing ‘every trick in the book’ to nullify the elections because the two candidates close to Eslamdoust had lost heavily to left-wing challengers Duncan Bates and Paul Mangan. The union had announced, as soon as the ballot closed, that a ‘serious’ complaint had been made against one of the challengers – no details ever provided, even to the accused, to the serious alarm of members.

Coe subsequently repeated his accusation that Eslamdoust’s allies had lost – and accused her of ‘trashing’ the union’s reputation.

And now, TSSA insiders are complaining that the management is again tampering with the election because of an undesired result, after the union issued a notice that it was prolonging the presidential election, supposedly ‘to ensure that all members have a fair opportunity’ to vote:

Due to a large number of ballots being reissued, and to ensure that all members have a fair opportunity to return their ballots and have them counted, the President Election has been extended by a further week.

The ballot will now close at midday on Wednesday 22 October 2025.

If you are a member who has not yet posted your ballot, you still have the opportunity to do so now.

Please note that no further ballot reissues will be made.

Thank you for your participation and support.

Kind regards,

Support Services

One 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.

Chaos

Having been brought in – and recommended to members by the TSSA executive despite having no relevant experience, after 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 previously:

• 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 action
• been accused of paying off disgraced former managers of the union she claimed she was going to sort out after years of sexual harassment and mismanagement under her predecessor Manuel Cortes
• suspended senior union figures not in Eslamdoust’s camp just after they won key elections or awards from the union
• lost a unanimous vote of no confidence among TSSA staff and another unanimous vote by one of TSSA’s biggest member branches
• tried to bypass TSSA staff in their dispute by going straight to the GMB union that represents them at work
• attacked the GMB in the national press – and 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 Cortes
• barred delegates and members from last year’s TSSA annual conference and blocked a no-confidence motion brought against her
• attacked 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.

TSSA is now facing renewed strike action after GMB union reps representing TSSA staff were suspended.

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

Featured image via the Canary