Verizon Communications Inc., deadlocked in labor talks over pension benefits and health care that caused a strike in 2011, has gained bargaining power this time around after shedding operations that employ older unionized workers.

The Communications Workers of America and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, representing about 39,000 Verizon employees, are in the weakest position they've ever been. That's because the phone giant has refocused on wireless, where it sees more growth and employees are nonunionized and typically younger.

The labor dispute is the first since Verizon took full control of Verizon Wireless and agreed to buy AOL, two deals worth almost $135 billion that point toward a wireless-centric future. Today's Verizon makes just 30 percent of revenue from its landlines, and Chief Executive Officer Lowell McAdam has begun a review of legacy telephone assets that could result in the sale of additional union-heavy operations.