More and more railway workers stopped their strike and returned to work as of Saturday as the South Korean government stepped up its crackdown on the illegal strike.

The state-run (South) Korean Railroad Corp. (KORAIL) announced that 9,065 unionists, or 53.6 percent, of the unionized train engineers and others returned to their jobs as of Saturday noon, reported South Korean Yonhap News Agency.

The company even predicted if this trend continues, the train operations in and around the Seoul metropolitan area would return to normal as of Sunday morning.

Nearly 17,000 unionized workers launched the strike early Wednesday morning as their demands for higher salary and better working conditions were not met by the company's management.

The strike, which has affected more than half of the nation's train service and part of the subway linking Seoul and its suburbs, came despite the government's warnings of stern action against such an illegal walkout.

The workout has caused an estimated loss of at least 10 billion won (10.3 million U.S. dollars) for the government-funded corporation as of Friday, and inconvenience for millions of public transportation users.

The government has taken a tough stance on the strike in order to prevent nationwide transportation paralysis, arresting a total of 397 unionized workers for investigation. Nine have been indicted without physical detention.

KORAIL has also sacked 2,244 strikers so far.

Source: Xinhua