DIRECTIONS: Simply fill in the blanks of this story from the New York Times from this morning and see what you get!

(INSERT NAME OF UNION) Facing Tough Choices, Leader Warns

(INSERT NAME OF CITY HOSTING UNION CONVENTION) -- The president of the (INSERT NAME OF UNION) told his members in a strikingly blunt report released Sunday that they cannot ride out the(INSERT NAME OF INDUSTRY) crisis and should be prepared to make tradition-breaking decisions to help rescue the industry.

In the report, to be given to members at the union's convention, which opens here on Monday, the union president, (INSERT NAME OF UNION PRESIDENT,) pointed to many causes of the industry's grave malaise, including "bad management" and declining (INSERT WHATEVER IS DECLINING.)

But (INSERT NAME OF UNION PRESIDENT) acknowledged that the union's health care benefits helped create a ballooning health cost crisis that had become "unsustainable" in the face of the (INSERT NAME OF INDUSTRY)'s declining sales. This, he said, was a reason why the (INSERT ACRONYM THAT THE UNION GOES BY) agreed to substantial health care concessions last year.

"This isn't a cyclical downturn," (INSERT UNION LEADER'S LAST NAME) said in the report. "The kind of challenges we face aren't the kind that can be ridden out. They're structural challenges and they require new and farsighted solutions."

(INSERT UNION LEADER'S LAST NAME) declined to say what specific moves he would ask union members to make and said he believed things could improve for the union, which he argued is gaining political and social momentum. But seasoned labor experts said the report and a speech (INSERT UNION LEADER'S LAST NAME) is scheduled to give on Monday on the state of the (INSERT UNION'S ACRONYM), are meant to prepare union members to expect more concessions in critical contract talks that begin next year.

"Usually you rally them for the fight that's ahead; he's rallying them for the hard times that are ahead," said Gary N. Chaison, a professor of labor relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

The (INSERT UNION'S ACRONYM,) long the envy of the labor movement for its contracts with high wages and extensive benefits, is now experiencing the same demands for givebacks that have swept workers in the steel, railroad and airline industries, and it is losing jobs rapidly. The union's membership, which peaked in 1979 at 1.5 million fell below 600,000 last year, its lowest point since 1942, a separate union report released Sunday showed.

And more members are likely to disappear in coming months. Workers at (INSERT NAME OF ONE EMPLOYER), and (INSERT NAME OF ANOTHER EMPLOYER), must decide by June 23 whether to accept buyouts and other retirement incentives to leave their jobs.

Those still working are finding that their lives have changed. In the past year, the (INSERT UNION ACRONYM) reached landmark agreements that will require workers to pay more for health care coverage at (NAME TWO LARGE EMPLOYERS) — an action that (INSERT UNION LEADER'S LAST NAME) told Time magazine was "probably the most difficult backward step to take in the history of our union."

Despite that, (INSERT UNION LEADER'S LAST NAME,) who joined the union in 1964 as a (INSERT ENTRY LEVEL TITLE,) is expected to win a second four-year term this week. He also will name new vice presidents in charge of bargaining in next year's contract negotiations.

Hanging over the convention, however, is the crisis affecting (INSERT TYPE OF INDUSTRY, ) whose market share fell to just under 53 percent last month, the second-lowest level in history. (INSERT NAME OF EVIL COMPETITOR,) meanwhile, took 40 percent of the market, their highest ever.

Moreover, (INSERT NAME OF BIG EMPLOYERS,) which are losing millions of dollars on their (INSERT TYPE OF WORK PERFORMED) operations, collectively plan to cut 60,000 jobs over the next six years, when they plan to close all or parts of two dozen (INSERT TYPE OF WORKPLACE.)

The situation is "unlike any we have faced in the past," (INSERT UNION LEADER'S NAME) said in the report. As he has before, (INSERT UNION LEADER'S LAST NAME) criticized industry leaders for failing to act in the face of foreign competition. (INSERT TYPE OF INDUSTRY) leaders, he said, were guilty of "missed market opportunities" and "bland designs" while money that could have been invested in new products and updating (INSERT TYPE OF WORKPLACE) was "squandered in ill-conceived international ventures."

But (INSERT UNION LEADER'S LAST NAME,) long a proponent of national health care coverage, said the extensive health care benefits, coupled with (INSERT NAME OF INDUSTRY)'s declining fortunes, had created a situation that was "unsustainable" — a reason the (INSERT UNION'S ACRONYM) agreed to the benefit concessions. "That reality was painful, but it was the reality," (INSERT UNION LEADER'S LAST NAME) said in the report.

Further, he argued, "We can be proud that our union doesn't shy away from making tough calls and even prouder of our members' willingness to make sacrifices for those who preceded them and those who will follow."

(INSERT UNION LEADER'S LAST NAME)'s pragmatism in the (INSERT TYPE OF INDUSTRY) crisis contrasts sharply with the previous determination of other past (INSERT UNION ACRONYM) leaders to fight concessions, Professor Chaison said.

"There's a word that kept coming up several times, and that's the word reality," he said. "What he's really saying is that we live in extraordinary times, and we have to do what reality demands we do, not what we'd like to do."

So while the (INSERT UNION'S ACRONYM) convention will have its usual round of parties, dinners and cocktail receptions here, they are taking place against a somber backdrop.

Professor Chaison said: "This is probably going to be the gloomiest convention that you've ever seen. Everyone is just waiting for the other shoe to fall."