Follow the employees
National Public Radio launched a series looking at the increased use of foreign companies to fix airplanes and some problems that have resulted. Correspondent David Zwerdling takes listeners to El Salvador to talk with workers at one of the repair companies. David says:
This is just one of at least three troubling maintenance mistakes that mechanics in El Salvador have made recently while fixing US Airways planes. There could be more. But airlines and the Federal Aviation Administration don’t make maintenance problems public. NPR first learned about these incidents from mechanics at Aeroman and at US Airways
Today’s Tip: Find the employees.
Workers who see the problems first hand provided great information for David’s story. Just by stopping along the road near the company, he found employees.
As beat reporters, focus less on schmoozing the PR team over lunch and more on finding employees’ hot spots. In addition to seeking out workers at nearby bars and restaurants, you can also track them down on Facebook and LinkedIn, where people often declare where they work. You can also put out queries to your followers on Twitter.
And court records can be another source of current or former employees. Clark Kauffman of the Des Moines Register used unemployment compensation cases to find information on HIPAA violations by former hospital employees for a series he did last year.
