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Frontier Airlines Airbus A321 [Photo by Griz13/Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0]

On Tuesday, pilots at ultra-low cost carrier Frontier Airlines voted by 99 percent to authorize strike action, following 10 months of government-mandated mediation which failed to produce a new contract. The pilots are demanding pay and benefits on par with other airlines like Southwest and Delta, as well as an end to excessive hours and poor planning and security for assignments.

Last month, 4,000 flight attendants at Frontier also voted by 99 percent to authorize a strike.

The strike votes, the latest sign in growing opposition in the airline industry, comes as the strike by 33,000 Boeing workers continues into its fifth week. The workers are demanding a 40 percent pay increase and the restoration of pensions lost in a 2014 contract extension.

That strike has reached a crossroads. In an act of open retaliation, Boeing has announced plans to lay off 10 percent of its global workforce, or 17,000 people. It also plans to outlast the workers if necessary by raising $25 billion in cash by selling off assets. This is on top of a $10 billion loan it has already secured, a clear sign that the aircraft maker has the backing of Wall Street. Meanwhile, acting Labor Secretary Julie Su is intervening to shut the strike down, as she and the White House did to end a three-day strike on the East Coast and Gulf Coast docks earlier this week.

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