Breaking: TSSA rail union members organise demo against union management’s war on democracy

TSSA rail union members in revolt against the union management’s war on their democracy and branches have arranged a demonstration at the union’s HQ. The protest will take place on Tuesday 24 March from 5pm at Devonshire Square, London EC2M 4SQ.

The union’s deeply unpopular general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust moved, in February 2026, to disenfranchise all the union’s retired members — and boasted about it. Senior TSSA figures also said that she and her coterie lied to justify it and have put the union’s structures into collapse.

Worker and member revolt at TSSA

Eslamdoust claimed to be “proud” of what she had done, claiming that she was fulfilling the recommendations of the Kennedy Report, which exposed the bullying and sexual harassment of former general secretary Manuel Cortes and his cronies. Members and staff, furious at Eslamdoust’s endless war on union workers and member democracy, have not been shy about accusing Eslamdoust of propagating the abuses of the Cortes era rather than undoing them.

The Kennedy Report doesn’t say one word about closing retired branches.

In fact, the report only mentions retired members — at all — a single time. It does not recommend closing their branches, instead saying that the union relies too heavily on them and needs to encourage more working members to take up positions.

It also notes that if working members are not actively engaged in the union, TSSA management can easily stitch up elections to key positions. Ironically, this was exactly how Eslamdoust was installed despite having no relevant experience. It is how her cronies have been kept in their positions despite huge election wins for their rivals.

Because of this risk, the report suggests that TSSA staff who are not TSSA members (most are GMB members, a union now de-recognised by Eslamdoust and her allies) must be allowed to challenge her for the top job. Rather than implement this, Eslamdoust declared war on the union’s branches that might organise and nominate against her.

Finally, for this foreword, I want the TSSA to examine its democratic standing and traditions. It appears that engagement at branch level is dwindling and is heavily orientated towards retired members. This can present a real problem. Not only because it detaches the leadership from the reality of the current world of work as it is being experienced by members, but also because it means there is no healthy throughput of talent to key roles within the organisation. Only TSSA members can stand for election to General Secretary (GS), the most powerful role in the union. The most likely candidate to be successful in a GS election is someone who knows the organisation inside and out – i.e. a staff member. Very few staff members belong to the TSSA. So, GS elections are, to all intents and purposes, uncontested (or are notionally contested by candidates who have little prospect of winning). A key individual is seen to be ‘groomed’ for the post by the small number of senior managers who hold power, and that individual is then ‘crowned.’

That’s all clear enough — and not remotely what the management claims. So to try to persuade furious members that it is, Eslamdoust’s ally John Rees sent an email to retired members claiming that the change is “fully aligned” with Kennedy’s recommendations. And to embellish the claim, he added that it was “comprehensively and fully accepted” by the union’s annual conference after its publication:

This change is fully aligned with the recommendations of the Kennedy Report, which was comprehensively and fully accepted by TSSA Annual Conference in 2023. The report set out a clear direction to consolidate retired members’ structures in order to strengthen representation, improve consistency, and ensure long-term sustainability.

Eslamdoust’s ‘wreckord’

In 2024, Eslamdoust and her allies wrecked the TSSA’s annual conference and blocked a planned no-confidence vote against her.

But this is just the tip of a very large iceberg of member, rep and staff disgust with their ‘leader’. The TSSA has been embroiled for years in strikes because of the union workers’ fury at Eslamdoust’s attacks on them and their GMB union reps, both public and private. The attacks culminated, in January 2026, with Eslamdoust de-recognising GMB as the workplace union — an outrageous move for a union boss, and one that came after Eslamdoust told the Guardian that she is only being criticised because she is female.

That demand for special treatment failed — and TSSA members and staff are now taking their fight to the public square right outside her front door.

Featured image via the author