British Airways and replace them with agency staff; it is estimated that the strike cost British Airways £30 million and caused disruption to 100,000 passengers. In October 2006, BA became involved in a civil rights dispute when a Christian employee was forbidden to wear a necklace bearing the cross, a religious symbol. BA's practice of forbidding such symbols has been publicly questioned by British politicians such as the former Home Secretary John Reid and the former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. Relations have been turbulent between BA and Unite. In 2007, cabin crew threatened strike action over salary changes to be imposed by
Effects of the April 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption ban, with later figures suggesting 107,000 flights cancelled during an 8-day period, accounting for 48% of total air traffic and roughly 10 million passengers. Following Air France-KLM's and British Airways' requests to the European Union, and additionally in the latter's case to the British government, for compensation, Gordon Brown announced that the EU Solidarity fund, designed to aid EU member states in the event of large-scale disasters, could be a possible source of compensation. The EU's competition commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, also said the EU was considering easing its rules on governmental subsidies to airlines. Late in April 2010, EU Transport