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🗞️ Labor Board Clears Union Vote for Vancouver Electrolysis Clinic, Rejects Broader Voting Unit

A federal labor official ruled that electrologists at a single Vancouver, Washington clinic may hold a union election without folding in a sister facility 120 miles away, setting an August 4 vote after weeks of unrest at the company.

The National Labor Relations Board's Region 19 office has directed a union election for electrologists at Real You Electrolysis, a Vancouver, Washington clinic that provides permanent hair removal, including for clients undergoing gender affirming care. At issue was how broadly to define the group of workers eligible to vote: only the roughly fifteen electrologists at the Vancouver location, as the petitioning union sought, or a combined unit that would also include about nine electrologists at the company's Lakewood, Washington facility.

Regional Director Ronald K. Hooks sided with the narrower unit, applying the Board's longstanding presumption that a single facility is an appropriate voting group unless an employer can prove the locations have effectively merged into one operation. He found that the two clinics are separated by significant distance, that employees rarely move between them to perform regular work, and that no bargaining history exists between the parties, factors that outweighed the fact that management is centralized and job duties are nearly identical at both sites.

The ruling arrives amid a monthslong standoff between ownership and staff. Workers say a well regarded colleague was fired without explanation this spring, fueling suspicion that led a majority of the Vancouver electrologists to organize under the banner of Real You Electrolysis Workers United, affiliated with the Portland chapter of the Industrial Workers of the World. According to the union's own account of events, its lead organizer was terminated hours after the group delivered a voluntary recognition request to management; additional firings and a walkout followed, and employees say some paychecks have since bounced. Company leadership has attributed the payment delays to slow reimbursement from insurers, according to reporting by The Columbian.

Board records also show the employer separately challenged a procedural ruling earlier in the case, a request the Board denied in mid June, though the full history of that appeal is not detailed in the Regional Director's decision.

Key Points

The Board found the single facility presumption intact, citing the 120 mile distance between clinics, minimal interchange of workers, and the absence of any prior bargaining history.
Centralized oversight of hiring, firing and payroll by the company's director of operations was not, by itself, enough to require a combined unit, since local managers still run daily operations.
The election is scheduled for August 4, 2026, at the Vancouver facility and covers full time and regular part time electrologists, excluding managers, owners and other supervisory staff.
The union says a lead organizer was fired shortly after presenting a recognition request to management, a claim that helped spark a walkout this spring.
The employer must supply a list of eligible voters' names and contact information to the Board and the union by July 24, 2026.
Either side may ask the full Board to review the decision within ten business days of the case's final disposition.