"This is the kind of information along with other studies that will shape our bargaining demands," Mr. Levy said yesterday.

Expanded protection against dismissals or layoffs caused by market conditions will undoubtedly be the key bargaining demand by the union in the negotiations.

Mr. Hanley was expected to present the city's bargaining demands yesterday but postponed that to a later day, according to one top union official who attended the meeting.

Striking for economic reasons (like protesting workplace conditions or supporting a union's bargaining demands) allows an employer to hire permanent replacements.

Upshaw also said that he did not view free agency and guaranteed contracts as "separate" from the union's other bargaining demands.

UMWA's bargaining demands were now set by a 36-member bargaining council rather than the president and his aides.

He said Tate & Lyle's bargaining demands were so aggressive that they suggested that the management was trying to break the union.

"But when they get pulled more closely together because of a merger like this, it's likely to affect bargaining demands."

Union representatives from the 28 National Football League teams have scheduled a meeting tonight in Chicago, with expectations rising that the union leaders will drop free agency as a bargaining demand.

The abolition of that system is one of the union's current bargaining demands.