Exclusive: TSSA will re-run presidential election after ‘not getting the desired result’

Treasurer election also looks set to be annulled, after close allies of no-confidenced general secretary lost according to former AGS and others

As anticipated, the TSSA union has announced that the elections for the position of its president will be re-run, after insiders said general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust and her allies were ‘using every trick in the book’ to annul the results of the elections for the union’s president and treasurer because her close allies had lost. The outcome of the votes has never been announced; instead, one candidate was suspended over an unspecified complaint and sudden questions over the eligibility of another were raised.

Since her election as general secretay, Eslamdoust has horrified TSSA members and staff who have:

• repeatedly accused her of bullying staff who have been in dispute with their employer for more than a year and using anti-union tactics against them – and of crossing their picket line during strike action
• accused her 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
• seen her suspend senior union figures not in her camp just after they won key elections or awards from the union
• unanimously voted no confidence in her, both among TSSA staff and in one of TSSA’s biggest member branches
• seen her try to bypass TSSA staff in their dispute by going straight to the GMB union that represents them at work, attack the GMB in the national press – and attack striking staff in an email to members
• had their TSSA women’s group, which accused Eslamdoust and her allies of perpetuating the abuse and harassment that characterised the regime of her predecessor Manuel Cortes, summarily de-recognised by Eslamdoust
• been barred as delegates and members from last year’s TSSA annual conference and blocked from tabling a no-confidence motion against her
• been attacked as delegates at the 2025 conference as ‘parochial’ for wanting to raise these issues

Now Eslamdoust and her allies have sent a circular to members smearing the left-wing candidates, confirming the cancellation of the presidential election and indicating that the same will soon happen to the treasurer vote:

According to insiders, the status of the supposedly ‘ineligible’ was well known to the union before the election, but Eslamdoust and co are now claiming that he is ineligible because his title in his ‘day job’ contains the word ‘driver’ – a rail company anachronism. His employers had confirmed that he is not a driver – TSSA is the rail management and clerical union.

Earlier this month, former TSSA assistant general secretary Steve Coe told Skwawkbox on the record that:

They clearly know what the result is, it’s no coincidence that an executive committee meeting was held on the on the very day the ballot closed. Why would they go to all this trouble if the other two [close to Maryam] won?

The new enforcer that Eslamdoust appointed has been trying to find anything, anything they can use against Duncan Bates. TSSA is being run by a clique of about 8 people and they’ll do anything to protect them. The ruling clique doesn’t have the support of branches and conference, they clearly don’t have the support of staff and the members have spoken and chosen to elect Paul and Duncan.

Of course that threatens the power that the ruling clique have got and they’re desperately, desperately trying to stop it.

Coe says his suspension from union membership for more than four years – with no reasons given – and Eslamdoust’s refusal to allow him to exercise his right under TSSA rules to appeal to the union’s annual conference – has left him with nothing to lose. Skwawkbox asked TSSA:

Further to my enquiry last week, to which you did not respond, former assistant AGS Steve Coe has gone on record to say that:

• TSSA management was aware that the Bates-Mangan ticket had won the election and this is the reason both that the election results have been withheld and for the suspension and other actions against one of the candidates, which he described as ‘using every trick in the book to block democracy’
• that this was done without the approval of the TSSA EC required by rule
• that their election threatens Ms Eslamdoust’s ‘power base’ in the union and this drove the action
• that the excuse for declaring Duncan Bates ineligible – which has been alluded to in a recent circular to members – is because his job title includes the word ‘driver’. [Train] Drivers are not eligible, but his employer confirmed in writing that he is not a driver, the title is an anachronism
• that Mr Bates was suspended, as soon as the election closed, on the basis of a supposed ‘serious’ complaint, without being given any detail what the complaints were, in contravention of TSSA’s code of practice
• that the union is spending significant sums on a barrister to investigate the complaints
• that Mr Coe was denied the opportunity to present his case in his own suspension to the recent conference, in violation of rule, and that he has been told by Ms Eslamdoust that he will not be allowed to do so at next year’s conference
• that her excuse for this is that it might upset his accusers, a contravention of natural justice
• that Ms E’s answer during the GS election to Coe’s question about her lack of union experience was to ask whether he had ‘had your equalities training’
• that he was told during an investigation meeting that it was ‘racist’ to question her lack of experience
• that his suspension, after taking a year to decide on action, is for three years
• that Ms E and co are continuing the bullying and abuse highlighted by the Kennedy Report

As you’ll be aware, there has been controversy over the failure of the TSSA’s management to release the results of the union’s recent elections for the position of president and treasurer. Please confirm by close of business today:

• when the results of the elections will be released
• whether any data on the likely result was shared with TSSA’s management prior to the close of the ballot on 30th April 2025
• Some 30 minutes from the closing of the ballots the management claimed that a ‘serious’ complaint has been submitted regarding a candidate. The incumbents’ terms expire at the end of June with the new appointees due to start on 1st July, but members are still waiting to find out who will be representing them, well after the declaration was supposed to take place. Does TSSA have any comment on this?
• The complaint announcement was made by Paul Atkinson, newly appointed Head of Legal and Governance. Mr Atkinson represented Manuel Cortes and Luke Chester and has been accused of being a scab. Why was he appointed to this senior position?
• Also, please advise why Ms Eslamdoust’s husband [who is not a TSSA member] was permitted to attend the recent conference in Belfast, where he was seen with a camera, when members who were not delegates were excluded.

The union has not responded to any of these enquiries.

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