A union representing more than 11,000 airline food workers in 28 cities across the United States says its members have authorized a strike.

The workers are seeking better wages and improved healthcare as the “airline industry booms.” This news comes a little more than a week after hundreds of workers in Detroit voted in favor of the strike to the tune of 97 percent.

UNITE HERE, an international union that represents 300,000 hospitality workers in North America, reports in a news release that the vote to authorize the strike was the largest ever within the airline catering industry.

Workers involved are employed by LSG Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet, and serve major airlines such as American, Delta and United, among others.

Related: Airline food workers serving Detroit vote to strike for better wages, healthcare

“The vote to authorize a strike by hard-working people who are members of three different unions, including our own, shows our united strength and solidarity in this fight," Stuart Appelbaum, president of Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, said in the Monday, June 24 news release from UNITE.

"Together, we are sending a clear message to the airline industry that our members need to earn a living wage in order to continue living and working in the major cities our airports serve.”

The union says this vote to authorize the strike comes after talks for a new contract with Sky Chefs and Gate Gourmet broke down. UNITE claims that most employees make less than $15 per hour and struggle to pay the high healthcare premiums.

UNITE HERE reports that 74 percent of food workers at Detroit Metropolitan Airport make less than $15 an hour, with the lowest reported hourly wage coming in at $11.25.

About 7 percent of workers have put in more than 20 years of service time at the airport, including two with 30-plus years at DTW.

“In the past two weeks, airline catering workers voted overwhelmingly yes to authorize a strike," UNITE HERE president D. Taylor said in the release, “a result that points both to the crises of poverty wages and unaffordable healthcare in the airline catering industry, and to workers’ willingness to do whatever it takes within legal means to make a changes.”

The union says that some members joined “informational picket lines” at affected airports during the week of June 17.