The organisers of rallies protesting against sectarianism across the North have called on all paramilitary organisations to disband immediately.
Speaking at yesterday's rally in Belfast, Mr Peter Bunting, the assistant general secretary of the ICTU, said he welcomed the withdrawal of recent loyalist and republican threats of violence.
However, he said that welcome was "predicated on the citizens' human right to life, to workers' rights to go about their daily life earning a living free from intimidation, threats of murder and crass bigotry. To ensure the protection of those rights we call on all paramilitary groups to dissolve."
Mr Bunting said the rallies had not been called simply because of the murder of Mr Daniel McColgan on Saturday, but because the trades unions wanted to combat increasing sectarianism.
He said a number of young people had died violently in recent months and this, "allied to the attacks on Catholic and Protestant schoolchildren and the designation of schools as legitimate targets for attack", made it "appear that the evil purveyors of bigotry have declared war on the young".
"Fomenting hatred among our youth is designed to ensure the continuity of a hatred which thrives in all communities and contributes to anti-social behaviour illustrated in all-too-well-documented attacks on public-sector workers such as fire and ambulance crews, public transport workers, the providers of accident and emergency hospital services and civil servants in public offices," he said.
Mr Bill Hayes, the General Secretary of the Communication Workers' Union, said "Daniel, like every other postal worker, delivered the Good Friday agreement," and he called on everyone present to pay tribute to Mr McColgan by living up to the goals set out in the agreement.
Ms Nuala O'Donnell, vice-president of the Belfast Trades Council, said: "The events of the last week have shocked and horrified not only the people of north Belfast but all people throughout Belfast, Northern Ireland and the world."
"The vast number of people here today is testament to those feelings," she said.