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
Accord (trade union) members commenting that the spend of over £100k on such a lavish event was equivalent to nearly a 800 full-time members annual subscriptions. Accord (trade union) Accord is an independent trade union, affiliated to the TUC and the Scottish TUC. Accord is a specialist union for staff in financial services with members in the Lloyds Banking Group, TSB, Equitable Life and Sainsbury's Bank. It has around 19,000 members. Accord can trace its origins back to 1978, when it was founded as the Halifax Building Society Staff Association (HBSSA). The HBSSA was founded by John Simmons, the then manager of the