Originally Posted by
sailingfun
I am a little confused here. The contract states you can be reimbursed up to 50 dollars for laundry. What is there to discuss and what does past practice have to do with this? Past practice from a contract standpoint refers to a contractual area where something is not clear but has been dealt with in a consistent manner over a period of time. Past practice has nothing to do with contractual sections changed in a new contract. This is a new section and it appears to have no grey areas.
Trying to state the contractual 50 dollar limit is not valid because of past practice would be like trying file a pay grievance stating that we should be getting paid based on the pay rates in 2004 since that is past practice.
Not debating the
reimbursement limit, it's the limiting of
direct bill services to the $50 reimbursement limit. In short the $50 limit does not apply to direct bill, yet this change was apparently unilaterally made.
But thanks for the management perspective

Now I wonder what the union will be?