The Struggle for Quality Employment in the North Country: Beyond Prisons and the Military
Watertown, New York, U.S.A - October 21, 2019 - The view of the traffic into Clayton, Alexandria Bay, Thousands Islands Bridge, Wellesley Islands, Canada (Image: Shutterstock/Khairil Azhar Junos)
Employment is almost always at the center of the news, government plans, and people's concerns. The "North Country” region of New York State, located on the northeastern border with Canada and encompassing seven counties (St. Lawrence, Franklin, Essex, Jefferson, Lewis, Clinton, and Hamilton), generally suffers from higher unemployment rates than the rest of New York State. In addition to looking at unemployment rates, however, it is essential to look at the quality of life that the available jobs offer the community.
The first article in this series focused on economic insecurity in the North Country and the efforts of grassroots organizations and movements to find solutions. In this second article, I will look at how unemployment contributes to the region’s economic insecurity. To understand what causes the region's significant unemployment rates, I first explore the history of the region's major industries. I then discuss how economic dependence on the military and prison industries affects economic diversity and contributes to neglecting sectors such as agriculture and how these dynamics contribute to the more significant unemployment problem.
In pursuing the research for this series, I relied on data and reports from government and independent entities, sources on the region's history, and, most importantly, interviews with local people doing grassroots work, activism, research, or community service. These interviews are a vital part of the story as they provide a human perspective on issues that might otherwise seem abstract. For this article, I spoke with Cassandra Kunert, a graduate of St. Lawrence University who has researched the rise of the far-right in the North Country.
In this article, I wanted to go beyond simply presenting statistics to illustrate the extent of unemployment or economic insecurity in the North Country. I thought it was important to discuss how dependence on the military-industrial complex and the prison-industrial complex make the region's economy vulnerable, negatively impacting workers and their families. Lastly, I would advocate that grassroots organizations are a vital part of building solutions for a more resilient economy and community because involving local leaders gives the population's needs a better chance of being at the center of solutions.
In doing this work, I write from the perspective of a cisgender woman, Afro-Latina, a non-disabled person who has had the opportunity to access higher education abroad, despite coming from rural Costa Rica. That said, I do not intend to speak for the community or stigmatize the region as inherently economically insecure but to understand the structural issues that create that reality.
The historical context of the North Country economy
Understanding the region's current situation requires comprehending its past. The North Country has undergone economic changes that have challenged the local population to adapt and innovate to stay afloat.
Historically, the North Country's economy has concentrated on one or two industries for a period. Although the sectors in which it has concentrated can be profitable, this makes the economy highly susceptible to market fluctuations and hinders efforts to diversify the local economy. Among the most profitable activities in the region have been the dairy industry, paper mills, hydropower, and automobile assembly.
Agriculture and the dairy industry
During the early stage of the Anglo-Saxon settlements in the North Country, the population practiced small-scale agriculture. Settlers, who displaced Indigenous people from their ancestral land, came around the 1770s from areas such as the Mohawk Valley, Vermont, New England, southern New York, and parts of Pennsylvania. While there were small sawmills, butcher mills, iron foundries, and tanneries, these depended on demand from the agricultural population of either large landowners or small farmers.
Thanks to the New York Central Railroad built in the 1850s that connected main cities in the country's Northeast, the North Country became a significant cheese producer and exporter within New York state. The spike in dairy production led to Cheese Boards, where representatives of cooperatives marketed their products through bets. These spaces also built coalitions and advanced workers' and producers’ interests. The North country’s cheeseboards became the largest in the nation and helped the North Country become “the most noted cheese-producing area” in the United States.
As New York State’s road infrastructure improved in the 1910s, the industry focused more on exporting milk to New York City. The map above shows the many points along the railroad that received milk to transport to New York City, in contrast to the few creameries at the time. The changes in production displaced many small cheese and butter producers, who had to either adapt to milk production or join corporate owners with the appropriate tools to store and transport milk. As we will see below, the dairy and agriculture sector is undergoing significant changes affecting small producers.
Paper mills
The paper industry is one of the oldest and most impactful in the North Country. The first paper mill in the region was founded in 1807 in Lewis County. Thanks to industrialization, paper businesses started to boom, with the number of mills increasing from 16 in 1880 to 46 by 1927. However, the increased extraction of resources heavily damaged the local ecosystem. In fact, in the 1920s, the supply of raw materials declined significantly, forcing the producers to seek raw materials in Canada.
The shortage of raw materials led to corporate and governmental efforts to reforest the Adirondack region. For example, Northern New York Utilities and the St. Regis Paper Company contributed to a project that reforested extensive land. Nevertheless, the reforestation project did not make up the rate at which paper and pulp mills cut trees, making the community susceptible to unemployment and environmental chaos.
The North Country today
The North Country is predominantly rural; however, emerging cities such as Watertown and Plattsburgh have become major economic activity centers. The economy has diversified, encompassing manufacturing, hospitality, education, and healthcare. On a regional level, the NY Department of Labor identifies fourteen significant industries, of which eleven showed growth in their employment rate from 2013 to 2016. These industries fall under the following categories: public administration or government, educational services, health care, and social assistance, leisure and hospitality, manufacturing, agriculture, or construction.
Patterns of growth in each industry vary; however, from 2013 to 2018, the healthcare and social assistance area experienced the most growth due to the region’s large aging population. The North Country has a higher percentage of older people than the rest of the state. Approximately 15% of the population is over 65, compared to 13% of the state’s population, making it very likely that the demand for health and social services will increase in the coming years.
Government (federal and state) and educational services are the leading employers in the region through prisons and colleges. The area hosts nine prison complexes, divided into two hubs, Watertown and Clinton. According to the 2019 Significant Industries Report, 17% of government employees in the North Country are correctional officers. The government employs many people in Jefferson County through the Fort Drum military base, bringing significant income through salaries. Since the reactivation of the 10th Mountain Division, there has been an employment boom of approximately 42% since 1988.
Education is also critical to the North Country's economy, thanks to its several SUNY universities, private universities, and public school districts, which employ about 19,000 people as faculty, administrative staff, food service and maintenance workers, and other types of positions.
Tourism is another important economic activity due to the natural beauty of the North Country, especially the Adirondacks, known as an excellent destination for outdoor activities. Workers in the tourism industry earn an annual average of $18,000 since the jobs tend to be part-time and seasonal due to the heavy winter. Similarly, the construction sector slows down during the winter for at least three months. This lack of year-round stability in employment areas that are considered significant and necessary contributes to the economic instability of many North Country households.
Currently, the agriculture sector grows plants for food and fiber in farms or greenhouses and cattle for dairy and meat. The two of the most common occupations in agriculture are landscaping and farmworkers (and laborers), whose average annual wages are under $35,000. This industry is no longer as large as it used to be; however, farms still maintain the production of crops, especially dairy, all year round, regardless of the harsh winters.
One of the challenges small local producers face in the North Country is that large corporate intermediaries, such as Danone (a major manufacturer of yogurt and other dairy products), have shifted toward buying from larger-scale producers. In today's economy, small farm producers are at a disadvantage in the marketplace and lack legislation to protect them from corporate decisions affecting rural economies.
It is essential to understand the North Country economy beyond each industry's growth patterns, and it is vital to understand the options and life opportunities available to the people. It is crucial to keep in mind that the availability of these jobs is a product of larger national and global economic structures that have the potential to influence personal choices from food to education to health.
Unemployment
According to the NY Comptroller of 2017 report, "Since 1990, the North Country has had a higher annual unemployment rate than the state in almost every year. As for how these figures look within the region, generally, the counties with the highest unemployment rates are St. Lawrence, Franklin, and Jefferson. Ironically, despite having Fort Drum military base, one of the area's largest employers, Jefferson County has one of the higher unemployment rates in the region. The following table shows the different unemployment rates by county in 2020.
Unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic
The economic downturn following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic brought more challenges to the North Country job market. In the twelve months leading up to March 2021, “the private-sector job count in the North Country fell by 5,700, or 5.5 percent, to 98,700,” according to the Department of Labor. “Employment losses were most significant in leisure and hospitality (-2000), educational and health services (-1500), other services (-1200), manufacturing (-400), trade, transportation and utilities (-400) and natural resources, mining and construction (-300).”
While the economic recession has affected all communities, not all have the same resources and means to recover from the health and financial crisis. The pandemic has exposed and normalized social inequalities. In the case of the North Country, as a rural community struggling to stay afloat, the pandemic is a major blow to employment and health care, and the odds are that the most significant effects will reflect in the long term. As I discussed in my previous article, unemployment or job insecurity can affect people differently depending on their social identities, which intersect to create a unique life experience.
Quality over quantity?
Beyond unemployment rates, another issue affecting economic insecurity in the North Country is the lack of well-paid and stable employment. Ideally, people should have decent-paying jobs that allow them to access necessities such as food and healthcare. Yet many households with multiple members in the workforce still struggle to cover essentials. The chart below outlines the percentage of North Country households that still have to use assistance programs like SNAP (commonly referred to as food stamps) to afford food despite having two or more members in the workforce:
Eligibility for SNAP is based on factors such as gross household income (before taxes) and the number of family members. For example, for a NY family of four (without elderly or members with disabilities), the annual income must be below $34,452 to qualify for SNAP. Due to the stigmatization of people who receive SNAP, many households may be eligible but do not opt into the program. Negative stereotypes about people who receive social assistance are a manifestation of the larger culture of individualism and "hard work" that blames the individual for lacking resources and ignores the precarious wage reality that leads to food insecurity.
Dependency on the military
Although the North Country economy has undergone significant transformations that have diversified it, the current economic reliance on the prison and military industries to provide jobs has been a considerable concern. The potential closure of the Fort Drum military base would leave the region economically devastated as it is the largest employer in the area, comprising approximately 15,000 soldiers and nearly 4,000 civilians. In addition, in the year-end 2020 report, the base's economic impact exceeded $1.4 billion, more than 80 percent in payroll.
Popular opinion considers that the military base's economic impact is solely beneficial. However, the heavy reliance on this facility makes the North Country's economy vulnerable. In 2014, when approximately 3500 soldiers from the 3rd Brigade's combat team left, there were many concerns about further cuts to Fort Drum. The population's anxiety is not unfounded. A reduction in troops doesn't only mean 3500 fewer people in the county but also includes the families of the soldiers and the impact of their purchasing power. As this case illustrates, the federal government's decisions about spending on militarism directly affect people's lives in the North Country.
Beyond the challenge of dependence on Fort Drum, there is also the displacement of local business owners and producers with the arrival of large restaurants and retail store chains. Cassandra Kunert, North Country native and St. Lawrence University graduate who completed a significant research project on the rise of the far-right in the region, mentions that because of Fort Drum, “Watertown underwent a huge development in the early 2000s. Many businesses went into Arsenal Street [near the base], and they're huge corporations. And all of the little local businesses are suffering now.” The cost of generating multiple employment positions in food or retail services came at the expense of local entrepreneurship and ownership, leaving the population highly susceptible to entities outside the community.
Dependency on the prison-industrial complex
Relying on prisons to provide jobs also makes the North Country economy vulnerable. Prisons proved to be attractive options for the region because they are labor-intensive and offer year-round employment, unlike seasonal work areas such as tourism, construction, and agriculture. While the immediate economic benefits of creating employment are evident, the mental and physical health-associated risks are less known. In the United States, prison workers witness an average of 28 violence, injury, or death incidents during their careers. At the same time, they report being victims of approximately two assaults during their careers, in addition to frequent verbal assaults, which statistics often don't include.
Evidence suggests that the working conditions experienced by prison workers are associated with adverse health outcomes such as significant rates of depression, physical health problems (stress-related illnesses, heart attacks, blood pressure, ulcers), burnout, and fatigue. The adverse effects of these working conditions also extend to home and personal life, resulting in conflicts between work and home, divorce, and even a shortened life span.
However, in recent years the inmate population has significantly declined, raising questions about the future of prison employment. In 2011 there were approximately 12,000 people incarcerated in the North Country, but by 2020 this population was estimated to have been reduced by 25%, leaving several prisons below capacity.
A common critique of the dependency on the prison-industrial complex is that the economic development of the North Country is systematically based on targeting downstate racial minorities for non-violent drug crimes. The critique does not intend to blame the population that is part of the prison workforce. Instead, it spotlights how the economic and justice systems take advantage of economically vulnerable communities to advance the corporate prison agenda. For example, the prison project in the North Country was given a boost in the 1980s and 1990s when the “state toughened penalties for crack cocaine, and census figures showed the [Adirondack] Park’s population swelling with young Black and Hispanic men.”
Dependence on the prison system and military base create three main problems. First, it hinders efforts to diversify and create a resilient local economy that gives greater autonomy to the region. Second, it makes it difficult for entrepreneurs and local entities to develop locally-sourced solutions. Still, the fate of the North Country lies in initiatives that tend to come from the "top to the bottom," formulated by a highly centralized government that prevents local governments and citizens from taking an active role in creating solutions. Finally, although the prison and military industries drive economic development and the "success" of the region, these industries are intrinsically linked to the oppression of downstate communities and compromise the well-being of workers and their families.
How can we move forward from oppressive industries to provide good life opportunities to the people of the North Country?
The opportunity to explore the North Country's economic history and the present day has left me with one main takeaway. Rural economies need more than jobs; they need dignified and diverse jobs that allow the population to live fulfilling lives with which they can afford food, education, childcare, healthcare, etc. In the rural economy of the North Country, the prisons and the military base are primary sources of employment and pillars of the economy. The heavy reliance on the prison and military complex has compromised the diversity of the economy and discouraged investment in other activities. The economic benefits of these industries are undeniable. Still, it is essential to consider these jobs’ working conditions and their repercussions on workers, their families, and their community.
This paradox leaves me with a big question: how can the region move away from these inherently oppressive industries toward a more resilient and diverse economy? As I mentioned in the previous article, local initiatives and grassroots groups that comprehend the local reality are vital to answering these big questions. Supporting them is essential, especially when decisions that affect the region come mainly from the centralized government that is distant from the community.
Organizations such as the North Country Poor People Campaign, Veterans for Peace, and the Syracuse Peace Council are grassroots organizations that advocate for a culture of peace that includes an end to social injustices. Veterans for Peace hopes that future generations and the environment will not suffer from the destruction of war. Similarly, the North Country Poor People’s Campaign intends to change the moral narrative and demand an end to injustices such as those associated with the war economy/militarism. For its part, the Syracuse Peace Council acknowledges that militarism directly contributes to deepening social injustices. Finally, the abolitionist organization John Brown Lives addresses in its activist work the social disparities resulting from mass incarceration and the prison-industrial complex.
The problem of economic diversification impacts not only employment options but also resources available in the vicinity. The agricultural sector, mainly small-scale agriculture, is one of the neglected areas, and the shrinking of local small-scale agriculture affects farming families and the region's food security. Without local producers who can sell their products locally, the community is highly dependent on the national and global food supply chain, leaving it vulnerable to disruptions in the food supply. In the following article, I will further explore the food security problem in the North Country and how local initiatives are working to combat it.