Postal workers go back to work, but threats remain

Through Irish Eyes - Postal workers go back to work, but threats remain

Through Irish Eyes

Postal workers go back to work, but threats remain

JM Thorn

On January 16 postal workers in Belfast voted to return to work after a three day stoppage called in reaction to the murder of a colleague on January 12 Daniel McColgan, a 20 year-old Catholic postman, was shot dead by loyalist gunmen in the early hours of the morning as he arrived for work at the Rathcoole sorting office on the outskirts of North Belfast.

A caller to a newspaper claiming to be from the Red Hand Defenders (RHD) claimed the murder of the postal worker and issued a blanket threat to the staff of Catholic schools and Catholic postal workers. These workers were now being regarded as "legitimate targets" by loyalists.

Only hours later, the UFF in south east Antrim were privately insisting to journalists that it had carried out the killing..

In response postal workers refused to deliver or collect mail until the threat was lifted. Protestant and Catholic workers were united against loyalist attacks.

The issues were very clear. A fellow worker had been murdered and Catholic workers were under threat from loyalists.

The action taken to meet this threat was also clear. There would be no mail until the threat was lifted. If there is an example of the trade union principle of "an injury to one being an injury to all" in action this was it.

However, solidarity was not the guiding principle behind the actions of the leaders of the CWU. Although expressing sympathy with their members, the officials’ primary concern along with Post Office management was an end to the strike and a return to "normality".

The RUC/PSNI played a central role in enabling the CWU to press its members to return to work. This came in the form of a security briefing to union officials from the senior officer responsible for Belfast, Assistant Chief Constable Alan McQuillan. He claimed that following an analysis of the series of statements from the Red Hand Defenders and the UFF, he had concluded that the threat against postal workers "did not come from those who murdered Mr McColgan".

He stated he was "90% sure" the initial coded call making the threat "was not a genuine call". In conclusion he stated that, as it was Northern Ireland, he could not "offer any guarantees" on security.

This followed a farcical series of events in which the UFF, who had claimed the murder, ordered the RHD, who the police now admit is a non-existent organisation, to disband because it was undermining Loyalism. Dressed in a black uniform and wearing a mask, and flanked by men brandishing machine guns, a UFF spokesman read a statement which claimed that postal workers and teachers had "nothing to fear from the Ulster Freedom Fighters.

Then RHD released a statement announcing that it was disbanding in response to the call from the UFF. It was on back of these statements and subsequent police assurances that the CWU recommended a return to work.

Such assurances are worthless, designed to sow confusion and to downplay the violence of loyalists. The RHD and the UFF are both cover names for the UDA, which is orchestrating the ongoing offensive against nationalists.

No wonder that many postal workers are disgusted by the ending of the strike and by the attitude of their union. This sense of betrayal was summed up by a West Belfast postman:

"The unions went in determined to get us back to work and that was their main priority…

"We are only going back to work under duress and we feel our union representatives have let us down." Postal workers went on strike to remove a threat, but now they are returning to work with that threat still looming over them.