Employees of Vancouver electrolysis clinic allege unfair practices by employer
May 29-Eleven electrolysis clinicians took to the sidewalk outside Real You Electrolysis in downtown Vancouver this week, in protest over what they've called unfair actions by their employer.
The clinicians presented management at the business, 907 Harney St., Suite 100, with a unionization letter shortly before staging a walkout in protest of the firings of several staff members in the hours, days and weeks leading up to the action.
Real You Electrolysis is a clinic that provides hair removal for people undergoing gender-affirming medical care. Leah LaFavor and Anna Lantry opened the clinic in Vancouver in 2022.
Workers formed the union, part of the Industrial Workers of the World union based in Portland, after some employees became suspicious about why a well-respected team member was fired unexpectedly earlier this month.
After two additional employees were fired - one the day the union presented its paperwork to management - the union staged a walkout and began picketing outside the office. The company also appears to be struggling financially, with employees reporting some of their paychecks bouncing over the past several weeks.
Management acknowledged "financial issues" and chalked them up to the time it takes insurance companies to pay for services, said Zarek Lee, the director of operations at Real You Electrolysis.
Union organizers say their actions were protected by collective bargaining rights, as their union paperwork was submitted before the walkout began.
Attorneys for Real You, however, argue that the workers were not protected, and the walkout was an implicit resignation as the employees left in the middle of a workday.
"We note that the organizing committee's letter gave Real You until May 26, 2026, at 8:00 PM to respond - a deadline that had not yet passed when the walkout occurred on May 20, 2026," the company's attorneys wrote in a letter to the union earlier this week, provided to The Columbian. "This walkout occurred several hours after the letter was delivered and before Real You had any opportunity to respond at all."
Management also said the write-ups that sparked the firings and subsequent unionization effort were well documented, corroborated and not retribution for either personal grudges or unionizing activity, as some protesters have alleged.
The attorneys' letter to the union said the company will not voluntarily recognize the union as the bargaining representative for all of its employees, saying the union failed to follow the established National Labor Relations Act election process, and "the organizing committee has not demonstrated majority support among Real You's employees."
The company said it had no prior knowledge of the unionization effort before management was served with the letter last week.
The walkout and protest have torn a rift through the company, which both serves and is primarily staffed by people in the transgender community.
Multiple union members got their starts working at the company after coming there as clients.
The company required no experience in electrolysis and would pay for employees to undergo electrolysis training in exchange for a four-year work commitment. Any employee who either leaves or is fired from the company, however, is required to pay their training fees back in full if they've begun the 600-hour electrolysis training.
Some in the union feared this could be leveraged against them.
"I keep thinking four years, and nobody can make a mistake or you're facing financial ruin," said JackieMae Eup, one of the union organizers who was fired the day the union delivered the letter to management.
Eup was interested in unionizing the business's employees for almost a year, attracted to the communal idea of the action while also viewing it as a way to protect employees who'd undergone the training process.
"Those people are not just my co-workers. That's my community, that's my family," Eup said.
Lee, the director of operations, stressed that employees weren't indebted to repay the training costs until the training actually began, which could be six months to a year after an employee starts working there. And management is still discussing if those included in this latest round of firings and resignations would be on the hook to repay their training loans.
Lee said the management team told the employees who had signed the unionization letter that walking off the job would result in job abandonment or resignation.
"It was sad that we didn't have the opportunity to talk to them," Lee said.
Those walking the picket line say they're demanding their jobs back, the reinstatement of the previously fired employees, clean disciplinary records and an end to collections for the training costs.
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This story was originally published May 29, 2026 at 5:56 PM.