Colleen Coates, a cabin cleaner at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, told colleagues she wasn’t feeling well in the days leading up to her Sept. 17 shift. She showed up for work anyway because she needed the paycheck.
Coates collapsed “on a jet bridge in intense heat” while waiting to clean an American Airlines aircraft, according to the Service Employees International Union 32BJ. Coates could not be resuscitated. She was 55.
“She was afraid that taking care of herself would cost her job. Instead, it cost her life,” said LaShonda Barber, a friend and coworker. “She should never have had to choose between her health and her job.”…