South Korea's railways were hit by a crippling strike for a third day on Friday as workers reacted angrily to a management decision to suspend the jobs of more than 2,000 union members.
Korea Railroad (KORAIL), the state railway monopoly, said it had already suspended 2,244 union activists from their jobs on Thursday and Friday and were considering further action against them.
"There will be no further dialogue with the union unless they call off the strike and return to work," KORAIL President Lee Chul told a press conference.
A KORAIL spokesman said those suspended would be subjected to punishments ranging from warnings and wage cuts to permanent dismissal.
In turn, the KORAIL union warned the measures would only aggravate the industrial dispute and prolong the strike.
"The massive suspension of jobs has sparked an explosion of anger among railway workers. This measure will only make matters worse and prolong the strike," the union said in a statement.
KORAIL's 16,000 employees walked off the job on Wednesday, demanding that union leaders fired during past strike action be re-hired and that 500 female staff working on high-speed KTX trains get improved job security and benefits.
Many of the country's 2.6 million train commuters suffered through long delays as the number of trains in service on Friday was cut by some 60 percent, KORAIL said.
Thousands of striking workers, who had been camping in a railway depot here and in universities in four provincial cities since Tuesday, dispersed to regroup in smaller groups at different places, KORAIL officials said.
Others were trickling back to work, they said.
The government says the strike is illegal because workers defied a mandatory 15-day ban on labour action to allow for arbitration when they launched their action on Wednesday.
Following a meeting of concerned cabinet ministers presided over by Prime Minister Lee Hae-Chan, the government said it would never back down in the face of illegal strike action.
"The government will take all necessary measures to deal with illegal strikes," said government spokesman Kim Chang-Ho.
Police intervened for the first time on Friday, arresting 32 union members at a rally in northern Seoul. More arrests were reported in provincial cities including Daejeon.
Meanwhile, an umbrella labour union claimed victory on Friday after parliament put off voting on a controversial bill aimed at introducing more flexibility in the labour market.
The militant Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) staged a nation-wide walkout on Tuesday and Thursday in opposition to the bill.