(HEMLOCK, MICHIGAN) - Workers employed at a Corning Solar Manufacturing Plant in the State of Michigan have voted to join the United Steelworkers (USW).

The vote was close - 560-to-512, following an intense Anti-Union Campaign by the company.

Nakisha West, a Wirecutter, voted yes for “fairness and accountability.” She and her Co-Workers use scorching heat and precision-cutting tools to turn polysilicon crystals, or boules, into slim squares - known as wafers, for solar panels. “It’s a very dirty job, but somebody’s gotta do it,” she said.

It’s been more than a decade since that “somebody” was a Worker in the U.S.

Nearly all the world’s wafers are produced in China.

But in January 2025, Corning received $325 million from the Federal Government to build a Solar Plant across the street from its Semi-Conductor Plant in Hemlock, Michigan, which employs more than 1,000 more Workers.

The Hemlock Semi-Conductor Plant is one of only two plants in the U.S. that produce the solar-grade polysilicon.

Because it produces this material domestically, Corning is insulated from the effects of the 15% tariffs the Trump Administration imposed in August on imported products made with polysilicon.

The 1,380 Corning Workers represent the largest victorious Union Drive in a manufacturing plant since the United Auto Workers Unionized a Volkswagen Assembly Plant in Tennessee in 2024.

The Steelworkers also notched a big Organizing victory in 2023 with 1,400 school bus Manufacturing Workers at a Blue Bird factory in Georgia.

Corning employs 12,000 Production Workers in the U.S., in the fields of Glass and Ceramics, Life Sciences (Laboratory Tools), Fiber Optics and Solar.

Its products include Gorilla Glass, ceramics for catalytic converters, optical communications cables, automotive glass and iPhone screens.

The Steelworkers have long represented Workers in several other Corning plants.

After this win, the Union now represents 4,400 Corning Workers at facilities located in the States of New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Kentucky, Virginia, and now Michigan.

But the company has increasingly been moving its operations to Non-Union facilities.

Its fiber optic business is rapidly expanding, fueled by demand from Data Centers.

To Continue Reading This Organizing Labor News Story, Go To: Fourteen Hundred Solar Manufacturing Workers Join the Steelworkers | Labor Notes