Airplanes with standing sections. An extra fee for boarding charged at airport terminals. Even smaller carry-on luggage allowances. These are a few of the features offered by ‘Unfair Canada,’ a fictional airline (based on a real one) with the slogan “where we can’t take you!” and which runs a scrolling banner on its website proclaiming “all flights cancelled because we feel like it.”

Since December, satirical ads for the cheekily named fictional airline (Unf-Air Canada) have popped up on Facebook and Instagram alongside anonymous, first-hand accounts of flight attendants stuck on planes for hours without pay.

The posts are part of the Air Canada flight attendants’ union’s campaign to put a spotlight on the hours of unpaid work expected of flight attendants as their union negotiates a new contract.

The social media campaign signals a new way for unions to win public support during bargaining, said Robin Bondy, a public relations and communications professor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in Surrey, BC.

“Now unions have the ability to engage not only their membership but also the public, through their own channels, which is really powerful,” she said. “It gives the union leverage when it comes to negotiations, because they have the ability to share their messages and their stories.”

The Canadian Union of Public Employees, or CUPE, launched the Unfair Canada campaign last fall. In December, the union started to negotiate a new collective agreement for approximately 10,000 Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flight attendants.

Steven Tufts, a labour geographer at York University in Toronto, said the campaign will ramp up pressure on Air Canada and federal labour regulators to address flight attendants’ concerns — especially if negotiations break down and the government intervenes.

“It’s not just to get support for your demands from the employer,” he said. “You’re bargaining with the public so that you can get the public to speak out if the government decides to legislate you back to work.”

He added it’s become the norm for public service companies to seek public support ahead of negotiations.

Enter Unfair Canada. Since last October, CUPE has made dozens of posts on Facebook and Instagram as part of the campaign calling for an end to flight attendants’ unpaid work. It’s also created an interactive website that asks visitors to write to Air Canada about the issue and a podcast on which flight attendants discuss their working conditions.

CUPE did not disclose how much it spent on the campaign.

“That information is not public,” CUPE communications officer Hugh Pouliot said in an email. “But I can tell you it’s the most significant campaign the Air Canada component or any airline [component] at CUPE has ever initiated, which underlines the importance of this round of bargaining for our members.”

Wesley Lesosky, president of the Air Canada component of CUPE, said the campaign aims to debunk myths about the work of flight attendants.

“People look at flight attendants as this image of having a luxury lifestyle – heading to New York, spending the weekend, getting paid lots – and that’s just not the case.”

The union represents about 10,000 Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flight attendants.

The negotiations mark the first time the flight attendants have collectively bargained in 10 years.

While talks are still in the early stages, CUPE launched the online campaign to build public support as it seeks higher wages and better working conditions for flight attendants.

Some of the posts have gained hundreds of likes on Facebook – a clear sign the campaign is getting engagement, Bondy said, adding, “This is extremely well organized and professionally put together,” she said, noting that all the content clearly links back to the campaign website and petition, making it easy for viewers to get the union’s message.

Unfair Canada is part of CUPE’s larger effort to address unpaid work for flight attendants across the sector. The union’s airline division represents approximately 18,500 flight attendants for airlines including WestJet, Sunwing and Flair Airlines.

The union’s collective agreement for Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge flight attendants expires at the end of March. Air Canada did not respond to requests for comment.

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