The Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) is a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

for workers in the transport and travel industries in the

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and

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

. Its head office is in

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, and it has regional offices in

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and

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. TSSA has approximately 17,856 members in the UK and Ireland. While principally a union for people in the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

industry, the effect of the nationalisation and subsequent privatisations following the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

has meant that it has members working for railway companies, shipping companies, bus companies, travel agencies, airlines, call centres, and IT companies.

Organisation

Individual members are allocated to branches. Historically branches were organised geographically and by grade, e.g. ''Liverpool; Dublin No. 1; Crewe No. 4 Technical; Crewe Management Staffs'' (the separate branches for different grades of staff were so that people with grievances against their managers wouldn't find those same managers as members of their branch). In Ireland, branches are still organised on this basis, but in the UK starting in 1998 there was a reorganisation such that members of most branches are employed by a single company e.g. ''Virgin Midlands'' - this was required in the fragmented world of the privatised railway because the private companies would not allow access for non-employees onto their premises. Branches are in turn allocated to divisions - there are 14 geographical divisions, plus one for London Transport. Each division has a Divisional Council which meets at least twice a year, and members in each division elect a member of the Executive Committee (EC). EC members are elected for a three-year term, subject to a maximum of two consecutive terms of office (but can stand again after 3 years off the committee). The Executive Committee meets approximately ten times a year in London and continuously during the four-day annual conference held each May. The EC is responsible for the efficient running of the union, the employment of staff (of whom there are about 70), the oversight of the union's finances, and the implementation of decisions of Annual Conference. The Annual Conference is the supreme decision-making body of the union. Each branch may send one delegate to the Conference, unless a branch has more than 200 members, in which case it has two delegates. Each branch can submit two motions and two amendments to motions to the Conference Agenda, and once every five years can submit two amendments to the union's Rule Book. Organisation in Ireland is slightly different. The whole of Ireland forms one Division. As trade union law in the Republic of Ireland forbids trade unions being run by people not resident on the island of Ireland, the EC and Annual Conference cannot directly control the association's activity in the republic as they do in Britain. Instead, the Irish Divisional Council is constituted as the Irish Committee and chaired by the EC member for Ireland, and it operates in a similar manner to the EC. There is a biennial Irish Conference of delegates from all the Irish branches, to set policy solely relating to Ireland. When Irish branches want the Annual Conference to do something, motions to Annual Conference are normally phrased as 'requests' that the Irish Committee consider doing something rather than as the more normal 'instructions' that the Executive Committee do something.

History

The union was founded in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire a ...

in 1897 as the National Association of General Railway Clerks, although it was a narrow decision to found the union. The railway companies were strongly opposed to trade unions and two earlier attempts to form a clerks' union had failed and, discouraged, the organisers decided by a majority of only one vote to try a third time - this time successfully. In 1899 it was renamed the Railway Clerks' Association (RCA), and in 1951 it adopted its current name. The early years were difficult. The third General Secretary, John Stopford-Challener, shot himself in Paris's

Bois de Boulogne The Bois de Boulogne (, "Boulogne woodland") is a large public park located along the western edge of the 16th arrondissement of Paris, near the suburb of Boulogne-Billancourt and Neuilly-sur-Seine. The land was ceded to the city of Paris by t ...

in 1906; it was only after his suicide that it was discovered that he had absconded with the union's money. After this came the era of A.G. Walkden, who as General Secretary for 30 years led the union to the peak of its influence; the head office in London, built in the early 1960s, was named after him. The railway companies refused to recognise the trade unions until after the strike of 1919, but after that time membership rose steadily, to a peak of some 91,500 in the early 1950s. The subsequent closure of uneconomic railway lines, the '' Beeching axe'', and especially the computerisation of railway offices led to large scale reductions in the eligible membership. Membership was around 75,000 in 1970, 71,000 in 1980, and 39,000 in 1990. There was a rapid loss of around 25% of its membership in the mid to late 1990s because the grades of staff covered by the union were the ones hardest hit when British Rail was broken up from 1994 onwards; however the Executive Committee adopted a policy of seeking to vigorously recruit additional members particularly in those areas such as travel agencies which had not been the principal focus of the union in the past. This has led to more stable membership figures, including a small increase at the turn of the century. The union has been involved in at least one London Underground strike, between 6 and 7 September 2010. In July 2015, TSSA endorsed

Jeremy Corbyn Jeremy Bernard Corbyn (; born 26 May 1949) is a British politician who served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Labour Party from 2015 to 2020. On the political left of the Labour Party, Corbyn describes himself as a socialist ...

campaign Campaign or The Campaign may refer to: Types of campaigns * Campaign, in agriculture, the period during which sugar beets are harvested and processed *Advertising campaign, a series of advertisement messages that share a single idea and theme * Bl ...

in the Labour Party leadership election. TSSA National Political Officer, Sam Tarry spearheaded Corbyn's second leadership campaign. In 2018, preparatory work for the HS2 railway meant that the TSSA had to vacate its head office since the 1960s, at Walkden House in Melton Street, adjacent to London's

Euston Station Euston railway station ( ; also known as London Euston) is a central London railway terminus in the London Borough of Camden, managed by Network Rail. It is the southern terminus of the West Coast Main Line, the UK's busiest inter-city railw ...

, and moved to a new head office in Devonshire Square, near Liverpool Street Station. In September 2021, TSSA announced that is talks in starting merging the union with the North American Boilermakers Union with the viewpoint of completing the merger by 1 July 2022. In January 2022, union representatives voted by 88% to agree to the merger, the union would start to ballot members from 8 February 2022. In 2022, the union was granted an injunction on an employee who has accused Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of the TSSA of sexual harassment and of bullying by senior staff members. Cortes claims that he has no memory of the evening due to excessive drinking. The injunction forbids the woman from talking about the alleged harassment and bullying.

Election results

From 1918 until 1992, the union sponsored a large number of Labour Party candidates, many of whom won election.

Office holders

General Secretaries

Manuel Cortes, 2016 Labour Party Conference

:1897: Charles Bassett-Vincent :1898: John Hereford :1898: F. Parrish (acting) :1899: John Stopford Challener :1906: William J. West (acting) :1906: Alexander Walkden :1936: William Stott :1940: Charles Gallie :1947: Fred Bostock :1948: Percy Heady (acting) :1949: George Thorneycroft :1953: Bill Webber :1963: John Bothwell :1968:

Percy Coldrick Albert Percival "Percy" Coldrick (born 1 November 1888 – 26 December 1953) was a Welsh dual code rugby player who played rugby union for Newport and rugby league for Wigan. He represented Wales under the union code and Wales and Great Brita ...

:1973: David Mackenzie :1977: Tom Bradley (acting) :1977: Tom Jenkins :1982: Bert Lyons :1989:

Richard Rosser Richard Andrew Rosser, Baron Rosser (born 5 October 1944) is a British former trade union leader and Labour politician, sitting in the House of Lords. He is the Shadow Spokesperson for Transport and Home Affairs for Labour in the House of Lords. ...

:2004: Gerry Doherty :2011:

Manuel Cortes Manuel Cortes (born 2 May 1967) is a British trade unionist who served as the General Secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) between 2011 and 2022. Early life Cortes was born and raised in Gibraltar; while growing up, ...

:2022: Frank Ward (acting)

Presidents

:1897: J. Batty Langley :1899: W. D. Leaver :1900: Fortescue Flannery :1906: William J. West :1908: George Lathan :1912: Herbert Romeril :1916: W. E. Williams :1919: Harry Gill :1932: Fred Simpson :1937: Frederick Watkins :1943: Percy Morris :1953: James Haworth :1956:

Ray Gunter Raymond Jones Gunter (30 August 1909 – 12 April 1977) was a British Labour Party politician. He was born in Wales and had a background in the railway industry and the British trade union movement – specifically his union, the Transport Sala ...

:1964: Tom Bradley :1977:

Walter Johnson Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887 – December 10, 1946), nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year baseball career in Major League Baseball as a right-ha ...

:1981: Jim Mills :1987: Geoff Henman :1993: Brenda Hanks :1997: David Horton :2001: David Porter :2005: Andy Bain :2011: Harriet Yeo :2013: Mick Carney

Treasurers

Until 1906 the General Secretary also controlled the unions' funds. John Stopford-Challener's embezzlement proved that this was an unwise arrangement and the office of National Treasurer was then instituted. :1906: J. M. Roberts :1920: W. E. Williams :1927: Arnold Ernest Townend :1934: Frederick Watkins MP :1937: Percy Morris :1943: James Haworth MP :1953: Ray J. Gunter MP :1956: Lord Lindgren :1961: Tom G. Bradley MP :1965:

MP :1977: Jock Newall (acting) :1977: Jim Mills :1981: Stanley Cohen MP :1984: Geoff Henman :1987: Brenda Hanks :1993: Peter Holloway (acting) :1993: David Horton :1997: David Porter :2001: Annie Breen :2004: Amarjit Singh (acting) :2004: Andy Bain :2005: Harriet Yeo :2011: Mick Carney :2013: Andy Bain :2015: Jason Turvey

References

External links

TSSA British website

TSSA Irish website

or Return'' - the official history of the TSSA

Catalogue of the TSSA archives
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick {{Authority control 1897 establishments in the United Kingdom Railway unions in the United Kingdom Organisations based in the London Borough of Camden Trade unions established in 1897 Transport trade unions in Ireland Trade unions affiliated with the Labour Party (UK) Trade unions based in London Trade unions affiliated with the Trades Union Congress