Force labels to show

For the map I'm creating, it's quite zoomed out with all icons/labels appearing quite small (which is what I need). As small as they are, there are still a few labels that won't show up unless I increase this . At this level, the icons dont even touch eachother. Is there a line I can add to force the labels to show no matter how close the icons are? Googled around for it, but no luck so far. Is there a way to programmatically change the label weight?

thx