Eslamdoust demands GMB prefer her over its members working for her

TSSA union general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust has gone to the Guardian to attack the GMB, which represents TSSA members in the workplace, accusing the GMB of bullying her because she’s a woman.

Again.

Eslamdoust: here we go again

If this claim seems familiar, it’s because it is. Eslamdoust rolled out almost identical accusations almost two years ago, when staff in her union were in dispute with her, alleging that she had created a toxic environment of “hypervigilance and worry”:

an atmosphere of anxiety, hypervigilance and worry. The trust in the leadership…has completely collapsed…staff are once again feeling demoralised, ignored, distrusted and exhausted…in this toxic environment.

Almost two years later, staff are still in dispute – and even more outraged at her conduct. So much so that TSSA’s most powerful branch just scheduled a vote to call for her suspension, investigation and removal.

Not just one branch. In a recent ballot, nine out of ten staff voted for strike action. In a recent GMB survey of staff, the same proportion described “horrifying levels of stress and anxiety…[and described] TSSA” as a “psychologically unsafe” workplace.

The GMB vs the TSSA

But to listen to Eslamdoust, all of this is someone else’s fault – the GMB’s and the staff – and she’s being targeted for being female:

I don’t see GMB behaving this way towards unions where the general secretary is a man. There was no comparable hostility with the TSSA when it was led by a male general secretary and when those cultural issues were happening.

The thought that GMB is representing staff at her union who are utterly disgusted by the way she is treating them isn’t allowed to intrude. No wonder: Eslamdoust dismisses their complaints – and the GMB carrying out its duty to represent them – as “constant interference in my work” and bemoans the stress it’s causing her:

I’m starting to experience the stress and the constant interference in my work that the GMB has put me through.

By demanding the GMB back off, Eslamdoust is effectively demanding that the staff’s union prefer their boss to them, which would be gross misconduct by a union.

It’s worth a recap of what TSSA staff have been ‘put through’ since Eslamdoust took over the union.

Rap sheet

Eslamdoust was brought in — and recommended to members by the TSSA executive despite having no relevant experience. Elected executive officials were threatened that 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.

Once in the general secretary seat, 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 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.

And there’s more from Eslamdoust

She then responded to further industrial action last autumn with an administrative attack that:

• Denied staff their usual self-certified sickness absences, new requests for annual leave or TOIL [time off in lieu].
• Deducted pay the month after any day on which strike action was taken.
• Forced staff to come into the office who would usually work remotely.
• Forced staff to ‘clock in’ by filling in timesheets that were not usually required and listing their activities.

Union insiders pointed out that these imposed terms violated union law by:

• Victimising staff for undertaking a union action.
• Breaching the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act, which says that employers must still pay sick pay to employees off sick during a strike — they can investigate if they suspect the sick leave was not genuine but cannot arbitrarily withhold.
• Adding unreasonable extra work for staff even without ‘ASOS’ (action short of a strike) by demanding work logs.
• Varying custom and practice in the workplace.

The TSSA is collapsing around Eslamdoust as staff organise against mistreatment, bullying and victimisation. But the GMB is targeting her for her gender.

Featured image via the Canary