11.   Both the company and the union officially declined to discuss any terms of the agreement that was hammered together at the end of a two-day bargaining session.

12.   A late-night bargaining session on Monday had cleared away many issues, and there were growing hopes that a settlement might even be reached before the deadline.

13.   A more formal bargaining session is scheduled for Wednesday.

14.   A too-little, too-late bargaining session Tuesday produced a glimmer of progress but nothing that could avert a decision that had long appeared inevitable.

15.   Breaking the impasse, House and Senate leaders, along with the White House, held a first, bipartisan bargaining session Wednesday night.

16.   But if the owners implement their free-agent freeze, might that act change the tenor of future bargaining sessions?

17.   But he also stayed in New York last Wednesday night and was an engaged participant in the eight-hour bargaining session.

18.   But the only bargaining session negotiators held during the day was a small-group discussion on noneconomic issues.

19.   But the discussion at the next bargaining session could be more telling than previous meetings.

20.   But union officials have been working on a new proposal and planned to present it to the owners at a bargaining session sometime Saturday.