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
British European Airways BEA ceased to exist as a separate legal entity on 1 April 1974 when the merger with BOAC to form British Airways (BA) took effect. However the name was revived by British Airways from 1991 to 2008 when it renamed its already existing subsidiary British Airways Tour Operations Limited as British European Airways Limited. British Airways Tour Operations Limited was itself founded in 1935 as an air travel company under the name Silver Wing Surface Arrangements Limited. With the outbreak of war in September 1939 all commercial and private flying within the UK had been severely restricted by the government