Electrolysis workers organize, then strike

Workers were fired after presenting management with a petition for voluntary recognition, per Real You Electrolysis Workers United

VANCOUVER, WA (June 4, 2026) — Workers at Real You Electrolysis announced in late May that they were unionizing their workplace, organizing with the IWW as Real You Electrolysis Workers United. In response, ownership engaged in some Real U-nion busting, firing employees for exercising their right to organize, per the union. Workers have been on strike ever since.

Workers chose to organize after one of their most experienced coworkers was suddenly fired, a termination that raised alarm bells among union supporters concerned firings at the company were personally targeted rather than based on performance. On May 20, workers handed management a petition for voluntary recognition. Within hours, the lead worker organizer was fired. In response, ten workers staged a walk out. Real You Electrolysis owners then terminated those workers, demanded workers return their keys, and barred them from the property.

Photo: RYE Workers United & Portland IWW

Workers set up a strike line and are demanding the reinstatement of all union workers, voluntary recognition, and to start bargaining a collective bargaining agreement. So far, management refuses to meet with the workers and through their lawyer, refused to voluntarily recognize the union.

Workers at Real You Electrolysis provide gender affirming care; electrolysis is a medical process that permanently removes hair. If insurance companies cover gender affirming care, they usually cover electrolysis, which can be pricey out-of-pocket. That means the vast majority of Real You’s clientele is trans. And nearly all the union members providing this care are themselves trans.

That perhaps paints a picture of a progressive employer. But in a podcast interview shortly after the strike began, worker organizers shared aspects of Real You’s business practices that instead create ample opportunity for worker exploitation, including a loan arrangement to cover electrolysis certification that–in the view of The STAND–invokes comparisons to indentured servitude.

Voluntarily recognizing the union and respecting workers’ voice on the job could have been a tangible sign that a business whose profits come from trans people also respects their trans employees’ fundamental right to organize, like all working people. Instead, Real You Electrolysis owners entered Pride month pulling out all the stops to silence trans workers’ voices, running a union-busting playbook all too familiar to working people everywhere.

Pride’s roots are in direct action to demand equal rights for queer and trans folks. Supporters are invited to bring that legacy to life by joining RYE Workers United pickets from 11:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. at 907 Harney St suite 100, Vancouver, WA 98660.

Workers are also running a GoFundMe to help cover their living expenses while they fight for their jobs and their rights. Supporters can donate to support the strike fund here.