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, he never spoke English with his family. He left school with no qualifications.

He became an apprentice electrician, joined a local union, and gained technical qualifications from the Gibraltar and Dockyard Technical College. It allowed him to pursue further studies at a technical college in Kent. He studied Engineering at Heriot-Watt University, later becoming a full-time student representative. Later, he would gain master's degrees in Optical Electronics and Business Economics from the University of Strathclyde.

Career Cortes' first job after university was for the Banking, Insurance and Finance Union (BIFU) that merged with the Barclays Group Staff Union and NatWest Staff Association in 1999 to become the UNIFI, then became part of Amicus in 2004. He worked for a year as a fundraiser for Amnesty International.

In 2015, Cortes endorsed Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour Party leadership election.

In 2022, Cortes was accused of sexual harassment by a former TSSA employee, something which he vehemently denied and which had not been upheld after an internal investigation.

On 24 October 2022, after 11 years in office, TSSA announced his retirement as TSSA General Secretary

In February 2023, the report of an investigation by a Labour Party member of the House of Lords that was requested by the Trade Unions Congress (TUC) was published. The report was critical of Cortes and other senior TSSA officials and supported the harassment allegations made by several former TSSA staff. Cortes and several other senior TSSA staff were dismissed following the publication of the report commissioned by the TUC.

In June 2023, delegates at the TSSA annual conference rejected appeals from former General Secretary, Manuel Cortes, and former Interim Organising Director, Luke Chester, after they were both dismissed for gross misconduct. Delegates heard from Cortes and Chester by video link during a closed session of the gathering in Cork, Ireland. During his appeal, Cortes removed his shirt and argued he had been "made a scapegoat". The decision means that the conference has upheld the dismissals of Cortes and Chester.

As of January 2026, TSSA reported that "Matters arising between TSSA and Manuel Cortes have been resolved amicably".