But in the short run the part-timers and weaker unions have made it easier for firms to shed labour.

That may not sound like much, but it comes after years of declines that coincided with falling inflation and weak unions.

The wage increases have been small so far, largely because job insecurity and weak unions have increasingly diluted labor's bargaining power.

The year-old union, weak and penniless before the strike, became widely admired among miners throughout the West.

It was forced into a new, but weaker, union with Sweden, and the situation evolved into what follows:

The very fact that there will be an election is evidence of a splintered, weaker union.

Maida Rosenstein, president of Local 2110, said an agency shop was needed to strengthen a historically weak union.

"Solidarity is dead in most weaker unions," Mr. Widick said.

A substantially weaker legal union contracted by any couple in another state or foreign jurisdiction may not qualify as a domestic partnership in California.

The unions, once weak and divided, are emboldened.