Fly-in, fly-out jobs here to stay, researcher says

A researcher at Memorial University says that for workers in Newfoundland and Labrador, fly-in, fly-out jobs are here to stay.

Keith Storey, who shared his findings at a mining forum in Labrador City this week, said the numbers from Statistics Canada show that workers would rather commute than relocate for work.

Storey pointed to data regarding those that are working in Alberta.

"Over that five-year period they found that only one in four of those inter-provincal workers actually moved to live to relocate in Alberta — and that those who did, most of them left within a year," Storey said.

Storey said that western Labrador has done the best job of preventing workers who fly in and out from taking over in mining.

"What's unique about here is that the steelworkers in Labrador West have, to this point, managed to resist fly in, fly out for production work. How long that might continue, remains to be seen."

He said the local steelworkers union has been able to resist that type of job commute during production.