Manuel Cortes
Manuel Cortes (born 2 May 1967) is a British trade unionist who has served as the General Secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association (TSSA) since 2011. 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 also Business Economics from the University of Strathclyde. He studied Economics because he did not value the main beliefs of capitalism, which he views mostly as forms of greed. 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. Transport Salaried Staffs' Association. In March 1998, Cortes  joined the TSSA, the UK's second-largest rail union, and was formerly known as the Railway Clerks' Association, a white-collar union. On 15 November 2011, he was elected General Secretary for a five-year term. In December 2016, he was re-elected with 66% of the vote on a turnout of 19%. In 2015, Cortes endorsed Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour Party leadership election.