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
Robert Brown (trade unionist) Miners' Federation of Great Britain and Brown served on its executive on several occasions. Brown was elected to Dalkeith Burgh Council as a member of the Liberal Party and served as provost on three occasions. He followed his union in transferring his affiliation to the Labour Party, and stood unsuccessfully in the Midlothian by-election, 1912. Robert Brown (trade unionist) Robert Brown (1848–1917) was a Scottish trade unionist. Born in Dalkeith, Brown left school at eleven and began working at the local colliery. In 1870, he moved to the United States and worked as a coal miner there for two years