Trade union and political support is building for the ICTU half-day protest stoppage and rally planned for Belfast City Hall on Friday.
The North's biggest union Unison yesterday announced its support for the action and called on other workers to oppose "rogue elements" in society who oppose peace. Friday's rally has also been supported by the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action which is the umbrella organisation for community and voluntary workers.
According to Mr Peter Bunting, ICTU's assistant general secretary, there will also be rallies in Omagh, Co Tyrone; Enniskillen, Co Fermanagh; and Derry city. Rural organisations, church and peace groups are also invited to organise their own events in support of the main action.
Mr Bunting said the protest was organised primarily in response to threats against workers in north Belfast, but also following the killing of Gavin Brett last year and the increasing attacks on public sector workers, especially those in transport and the emergency services. Mr Brett was shot dead by loyalists outside a GAA club in Belfast in mistake for a Catholic.
"We were in the process of organising when the latest killing took place. We took a decision to have a rally and demonstration. The idea of a work stoppage came about to beef and strengthen the protest," he said.
"The president of the Methodist Church, and no doubt other church leaders as well, will be supporting us. We have had meetings with the Confederation of British Industry and the Chamber of Commerce and they have issued a statement encouraging us where possible."
Mr Bunting said the Secretary of State, Dr John Reid, "supports us 100 per cent".
"After Friday, we will have another round of meetings to develop a strategy to combat sectarianism." The trade unions were a trusted group with a cross-community reach and were well placed to counter hatred and bigotry, he said.
He denied that the stoppage would do more damage to an economy already threatened by violence. "This should be seen as people investing these couple of hours in the future of Northern Ireland. After all if you look at all the rest of the messages that have been going out around the world recently, what are they? They are all negative, they are designed to put off investors. We see this rally as one which makes a positive contribution to the future."
A party delegation led by the West Belfast MLA and SDLP spokesman on policing, Mr Alex Attwood, met the three assistant chief constables with responsibility for the Belfast north and south regions yesterday, Mr Alan McQuillan, Mr Sam Kinkaid, and Mr Steven White.
Mr Attwood said: "We put it very bluntly to the police who they [the paramilitary leaders\] were; what it was believed they were up to; and that it was time to bring the full rigours of the law and appropriate covert and overt operations against them." The police concurred, he said .
His comments follow concerns expressed by the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the North's Economy Minister, Sir Reg Empey, among others that recent police tactics had not resulted in more arrests.
Mr Attwood said: "We outlined that given the level of prosecutions, or lack of them, that there was real concern about the conduct of police intelligence and other intelligence agencies in terms of gathering information, making that information available and acting upon that information.
"There is a real concern that if people are so well known, why is there not more success against them."
He claimed that the detection and prosecution rates against pipe-bombers was around 2 per cent in Belfast. Of the 82 pipe-bombings, they prosecuted only one person.