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 in 1981, selling its shares to the Government of Cyprus. The following aircraft are on public display in British European Airways markings: BEA's early liveries in the late-1940s to early-1950s mainly consisted of a bare metal finish with upper case, black "British European Airways" titles above the cabin windows on each side of the fuselage, the aircraft registration in bold, black capital letters on each side of the rear fuselage as well as on the underside of each wing, and a contemporary BEA logo on each side of the forward fuselage featuring a stylised wing and "BEA" in capital letters