Dr. Keith Storey's Research on Fly-in/Fly-out Jobs Covered by CBC
Keith Storey presented an invited paper, "Community Implications and Options for FIFO", at the 4th Newfoundland and Labrador and Quebec Mining Forum held in Labrador City October 21-22, 2014.
The use of Fly-in/Fly-out (FIFO) work arrangements has evolved considerably since it was first introduced to the Canadian mining sector in the 1970s. Originally designed to provide labour to remote locations, the recent mining boom has seen companies using the system to meet labour and accomodation needs within existing minetowns. The presence of a transient workforce can be both costly to host communities (through additional use of infrastructure and services which the community typically has to pay for) and socially disruptive. The paper provided an overview of the evolution of FIFO and some of the options that host communities have to address the potential asociated costs and benefits. Contrasts were drawn between Labrador City and Fermont where in the first case the union and the town has been successful to date in limiting the use of FIFO among production workers, and Fermont where a significant percentage of iron ore workers are now on FIFO rosters.
Read the CBC article here, "Fly in, fly out jobs here to stay, researcher says."