British Airways Strike - Listening and Vocabulary Lesson

British Airways Strike
Watch the video report about British Airways going on strike. Fill in the gaps.
http://www.ft.com/cms/0e45e12c-0619-11dd-802c-0000779fd2ac.html?_i_referralObject=15446121&fromSearch=n
Presenter: British Airways is trying to head off a 3 day strike by 12,000 crew members tomorrow. The airline wants to cut crew levels and ______ pay after suffering record losses. We´re partnered now with the FT to bring you Lex on Bloomberg. You´ll get a sneak peak at the Financial Times´ column a day early. Richard Stovin-Bradford is joining us now with more from London. Richard, glad to chat with you. What´s about to happen? Is this weekend going to make a lot of headlines?
Richard: This may run to the wire as you say, there could be a three day _____ from tonight and then another four day strike from the 27th March. People have huddled behind closed doors as we speak and it´s hard to get any ________ information. But my point would be that regardless of what the outcome is, whether there is a strike or not tomorrow and later this month, the damage has been done. I´ve already, for example, changed my booking to another airline for this Easter weekend coming up. I just don´t want to have the __________ and I don´t want to be left stranded at London´s Heathrow Airport for example. There is talk of about _______ cancellations and this probably has cost British Airways about 27 million pounds, it hasn´t been confirmed by them, but that seems like a good working number. What also seems likely, during this, other airlines are just licking their lips and saying, ´isn´t that great that this is a unionized airline, look what´s happening.´
Presenter: So who do you think is likely to benefit, Richard?
Richard: I think the _____________ here are some of the low cost airlines on short hall, in Europe that would be Ryan Air and Easyjet, among others, those would be two prominent ones operating out of the UK bases. And then I think other airlines, other long haul carriers across the Atlantic, which is their most __________ route, I would imagine, and some of the European flag carriers too. But bear in mind that British Airways has formed an ________ with American Airways and that´s one thing that´s in the pipeline. But there is this merger coming up between British Airways and Iberia. Iberia also has a pretty parlous industrial relations _________ and, in fact, has been on strike as lately as last year, as recently as last year. British Airways hasn´t actually been on strike for ________ years. The _____ has got nothing to lose in threatening strikes, there´s plenty of brinksmanship, but British Airways, I think, it´s reputation is suffering from this.

Exercise 1: What do you think the following phrases mean? Discuss with a partner.
- Head off - sneak peak
- Run to the wire - to be left stranded
- Licking their lips - pipeline

Exercise 2: Answer the following questions:
- Why do companies usually go on strike?
- Why would British Airways have lost money even if the strike hadn´t happen?
- Who is going to benefit from the strike?
- Why is BA´s reputation going to suffer?
- What are some other factors that could be damaging to BA´s public image?

Discussion
Have you ever been on strike? Why?
Do you think unions should have strikes during busy commercial periods?
Think about a time a company went on strike in your country. How did it affect you? How did it affect the company?
What other ways can companies make cuts? Why do they do this?
When companies merge, it can affect their public image. How?
Do you think the workers were right to go on strike? Why?