Former MUA Assistant National Secretary Ian Bray has lifted the lid on the MUA’s internal position calling for ITF boss Steve Cotton to stand down, an MUA member reports.
International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Australian Coordinator Ian Bray has confirmed what many in the labour movement have known or suspected for months. One, that in October 2025 the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) National Council adopted a resolution calling on ITF general secretary Steve Cotton to step down pending an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment. And two, that this resolution was subsequently suppressed.
Bray has now confirmed via social media that the MUA National Council did adopt this resolution. His Facebook post, dated 2 September refers to the “MUA National Council October 2025 Resolution that the MUA endorsed” which calls on ITF leader Steve Cotton to step down for the duration of an investigation into sexual harassment allegations, for an investigation that is independent and free from ITF interference and that the MUA stand by women who have allegedly been harmed or wronged by misogyny and sexual harassment.
Bray was almost certainly invited to and personally attended the October 2025 MUA National Council meeting in question. While his social media posts do not explicitly spell this out, his detailed knowledge of the contents of the resolution and references to it being recorded but not distributed strongly suggest that he was there. His current role as ITF Australian Coordinator and previous role as an MUA Assistant National Secretary (2009-2020) would also warrant his invitation to this meeting.
The MUA itself has yet to publicly confirm that this resolution was ever moved or voted on. In May of this year, Labor Tribune approached a number of MUA and ITF officials for clarification regarding this matter, but we were effectively stonewalled. All of those contacted either offered no substantive public response or referred all questions to the MUA media spokesperson. The media spokesperson then provided a simple one sentence answer: “The Union doesn’t comment on the private business of its National Council meetings”.
The October 2025 MUA National Council meeting was the same meeting at which MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin announced his decision to step down and hand over the leadership reins to relative unknown Jake Field. News of resolutions calling on the ITF General Secretary to step aside while allegations of sexual harassment are investigated would have stolen some of the thunder from the MUA’s announcement that it was embarking on “generational leadership change”.
As for the October 2025 resolution itself, Labor Tribune was told that then MUA National Secretary Paddy Crumlin voted against it. This allegation was first aired by the ITF Women C190 group which has for months been campaigning for Cotton’s suspension pending an independent investigation (see its Facebook and Instagram posts). It must be remembered that along with leading the MUA, Crumlin has served as President of the ITF since 2010 and has worked closely with Cotton since at least 2014 when the latter was elected ITF General Secretary.
Cotton has denied all the allegations and is defending himself in what has become a drawn-out internal investigation. Meanwhile, he has remained in his post, despite multiple ITF affiliates calling for him to stand down.
Bray has confirmed not only the existence of this MUA National Council resolution but also attempts by ITF leaders to silence him for speaking out. In a Facebook post dated 1 September, Bray spoke of being questioned by the ITF about why he ‘liked’ Facebook posts from the ITF Women C190 page, of being requested to remove these ‘likes’ and of being threatened with “breaching the [ITF’s] mutual respect policy” if he didn’t.
The ITF Women C190 group believes that Bray is not the only staff member being intimidated by ITF leaders. The group claimed earlier this month that “we learned that staff around the world are being harassed by Cotton’s lackeys for supporting the ITF Women C190 social media campaign” (see Facebook and Instagram). Labor Tribune is not able to independently verify these claims.
The allegations against ITF General Secretary Steve Cotton are serious. The explosive allegations first published by Novara Media in October 2025 not only include multiple counts of sexual harassment, but also of Cotton leading “a masculine, sexist, patriarchal boys club” where union money was spent on boozy trips to strip clubs. The allegations against Cotton are so widespread that some have even labelled him the “Harvey Weinstein of the labour movement”, Novara Media reported.
Once these serious allegations became public knowledge, a raft of unions began calling for Cotton to be immediately suspended from his ITF leadership role. These unions include the British Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union and the Transport Salaried Staff’s Association (TSSA) as well as the two major left-leaning union confederations in France. Others have since raised serious concerns about how the ITF is handling these allegations, including the European Transport Workers’ Federation (ETF), the ITF’s Europe-wide regional body (see Facebook and Instagram).
Yet almost a year later, the Maritime Union of Australia continues to publicly remain silent. This is totally outrageous for a union that prides itself on standing up for women’s rights. At its 2020 Quadrennial National Conference, the MUA adopted its Women’s Equality Charter, a “statement of our principles of equality and the actions we will take to support those principles”. The Charter includes proclamations such as: “We take on injustice”, “We give voice, we listen, we speak up”, “We are not bystanders when we see matters of gender inequality or violence”, “We support other unions campaigns with regards to supporting women workers” and “We campaign for the government to ratify ILO convention 190 Violence and Harassment convention 2019” (see Maritime Workers Journal, Winter 2020).
Ian Bray has finally broken through the MUA’s wall of silence. In doing so, he has done the labour and women’s movements a service. The MUA National Council should have never allowed the resolution calling for ITF leader Cotton’s suspension to be suppressed. These resolutions are not “the private business of … National Council meetings”. They belong first and foremost to all members of the MUA and to the wider labour movement as a whole.
New MUA National Secretary Jake Field and the MUA National Council now have the opportunity to make things right. The MUA leadership should immediately issue a statement calling on ITF leader Steve Cotton to step down while an independent investigation into these long-running allegations of sexual harassment takes place. For the dozens of female ITF staff members who have raised these allegations for over a decade, this is the least it could do.