Andre and company show up on campus with hot dogs a sizzling. Day 1 - the union has a fit. Protesters are sent to his cart who pass out billets admonishing students not to purchase 'privatized' hot dogs. Suddenly, the union disappears, and is gone for several months. Then, without warning, the Administration asks Mr. Tubesteak to leave. CUPE admits that it has launched a grievance.
Meanwhile, UBC Food Services is drowning in red ink. Not realizing that students would spend more in their cafeteria if only prices were lower and the food was better, they look for new ways to sell food to students. They considered hot dog vending from kiosks on campus. This was considered risky - nobody knew how students would react to such fare, and Food Services is losing too much money to get involved in risky new ventures. So they invite Mr. Tubesteak to come on campus. The deal conveniently has the hot dog venders contribute ten percent of their gross take back to Food Services. Now Food Services knows exactly how much money each hot dog stand is making. The money starts rolling in. Holy Smokes! $1000 from one stand in September alone, representing ten percent of gross - you do the math.
CUPE claims that the Administration and Food Services knew they were violating their collective agreement. They were actually probably not in violation of this agreement since the particular jobs of the hot dog venders didn't exist before they showed up; in fact, the job description did not exist, but this is irrelevant. CUPE's (predictable) reaction is a convenient excuse to oust the people who took the financial risk, and replace them with Food Services staff.
Could Food Services have planned this whole predictable sequence of events from day 1? Was CUPE perhaps eventually informed? Why did they keep quiet for several months?
Is such underhanded dealing even a possibility? My friends, it is more than a possibility, it is a probability. This exact sort of thing has happened on campus before, perpetrated by the AMS*. Many years ago, the engineers set up a barbecue outside of SUB. The barbecue was very successful, the AMS decided to turf the engineers out and run the barbecue themselves. Later, an independent operator set up a coffee and cookie shop in SUB. He did well, too well, and the AMS turfed him out and replaced him with 'Blue Chip Cookies' selling exactly the same kind of product. Unlike Food Services, the AMS is a money-making venture. UBC Food Services is simply imitating a technique that has proven to work on the campus of UBC.
If this was a plan cooked up by the Administration and Food Services, it contained one fatal flaw: they allowed the tubesteakers to stay on campus for too long, and didn't account for the possibility that the UBC student body would fall in love with this friendly bunch.
A further note: The President's Office and Board of Governors are responsible for any deals arranged between UBC and outside venders. We have persistently tried to contact both of these bodies, starting back in December when notice was first given, and been repeatedly ignored by the President's Office, and brushed off by the Board of Governors.
*AMS = Alma Mater Society. The UBC Student Organization.
Michael Kyba, January 20, 1996