mercial jets. Its workers can clean and replace carpet and paint cabins too, according to photos from its website.

Typical airplane cleaning crews lug mops, brooms and other cleaning supplies up and down stairs, reach their hands into seat backs and have to move fast.

 They're in a van. They get rushed to the airplane and are standing by on the jetway when the airplane arrives. The minute the passengers are off, their foreman is rushing them to get into that airplane to grab every piece of trash, do a wipe down of the bathrooms and countertops, and get the heck out of there,  said Soma Priddle, a retired commercial airline captain and attorney who represents pilots and other aviation workers.

Inside a plane, workers can be exposed to harsh cleaners as well as bodily fluids and other contaminants left by passengers. Outside the plane there is hydraulic fluid, jet fuel and de-icing fluids, she said.

Turnaround time for planes is tight, and if a company can't meet deadlines they won't keep cleaning contracts for long, Priddle said.

 It's a god-awful job,  she said.  They work long hours. They're just pushed and pushed and pushed. 

Workers typically have little experience and make close to minimum wage with no benefits, said Manny Pastreich, president of 32BJ Service Employees International Union, which represents more than 20,000 airport workers along the East Coast.

 It's an incredibly hard job and not as well compensated as it should be,  said Pastreich, whose union did not represent the workers killed in Miami.

A report by the union this year focused on Charlotte Douglas International Airport found a shortage of workers left crews feeling rushed and that more than half of them had been at the airport for a year or less.