Postal workers in Northern Ireland decided tonight not to return to work until the death threat hanging over them is lifted.
They made the decision following the funeral of colleague Daniel McColgan who was shot dead at the weekend.
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Daniel McColgan:
murdered on Saturday |
Leaders of the Communication Workers Union met in Belfast after the funeral and decided that no collections or deliveries should be made while there was still the chance of another attack.
Union general secretary Billy Hayes is seeking talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair and Northern Ireland Secretary John Reid to seek support in getting the threat lifted.
A special meeting of the union's executive will be held in London on Thursday to discuss the crisis.
Northern Ireland showed its disgust at the brutal sectarian murder as workers prepared for a province-wide stoppage to reinforce the message.
More than 2,000 mourners attended the funeral of Mr McColgan and hundreds of thousands more took part in a two-minute silence as his funeral started at noon.
As they did so, a former Ulster Democratic Party politician and local councillor who was involved in talks with the British government following the 1994 loyalist ceasefire was being questioned about the murder.
Tommy Kirkham, who sits on the local council in Newtownabbey, Co Antrim, as an independent following the demise of the UDP - the Ulster Defence Association's former political party was one of two men being questioned.
The UDA has admitted it was behind the murder of Mr McColgan who was shot dead as he arrived for work at a sorting office in the heart of the staunchly loyalist Rathcoole Estate on the northern outskirts of Belfast early on Saturday.
Across Britain 300,000 postal workers joined in the two-minute tribute.
The trade unions have organised a half-day stoppage and rally at Belfast City Hall on Friday to tell the paramilitaries enough is enough.
Many hundreds of postal workers attended the funeral.
Colleagues in their Royal Mail uniforms formed a guard of honour outside the Star of the Sea church when the funeral cortege completed its two-mile walk from Mr McColgan's family home.
Northern Ireland security minister Jane Kennedy attended in a clear public expression of the British government's disgust at the killing.
A representative of the Irish Government also attended.
David Ford, leader of the non-sectarian Alliance party and Alban Maginness, a senior SDLP Assembly member, were among local politicians who attended the funeral together with Nuala O'Loan, the Northern Ireland Police Ombudsman.
The church at Whitehouse was packed for the service and so overflowed into the road outside that police closed it to traffic.
Mourners had walked in procession with Mr McColgan's family and girlfriend Lindsey Milliken, with whom the 20-year-old postal worker had a 13-month-old baby daughter.
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor, the Most Rev Patrick Walsh, told them that the very representative congregation was "a striking witness to the sense of revulsion and horror felt across the entire community at his callous murder".
Bishop Walsh said the murder was a violation of three basic rights - the right to work, the right to life and the right to profess one's religion - which were cherished and must be upheld in any civilised society.
He said Mr McColgan was a hardworking young man serving the entire community as a postal worker who was shot down by gunmen who were in effect saying "you have no right to be working as a postal worker, you have no right to be working here at this office, because you are a Catholic".
The Bishop had a special word for Mr McColgan's colleagues and said he knew how anxious they must be at the moment.
He told them: "Your dedicated service to the entire community is appreciated and I am sure will be all the more appreciated because of your colleague's murder."
At the end of the service Mr McColgan's girlfriend made her own farewell to him.
She said: "Daniel, may your soul not be afraid. May you be given the blessing and shelter you need. May there be a beautiful welcome in the home you have gone to.
"May you rest in peace knowing that we truly loved and cared for you."
The nationalist SDLP met the Police Service Chief Constable Sir Ronnie Flanagan tonight to demand tougher action against the loyalist godfathers.
Assembly member Alex Attwood said: "We left the Chief Constable in no doubt about our feelings. We are looking for more arrests."
PA