Members, there are several things you should do periodically to protect yourself, and to assist your Union in protecting your rights.

A very important and overlooked task a member should do is periodically review their Official Personnel File.  Know what is in your OPF, and if there is something that should not be in there, take action to have it removed. If something is missing, take action to have it put in there. For example, if you have had discipline in the past, it should be removed after two years if no subsequent discipline had been issued, or if it was overturned in the grievance arbitration system.

If you have had discipline in the past, and you check your OPF and see it is still there, you must put in a written request.  This procedure has been in our contract for a long time and is among the most  in Article utilized parts we have.  Note that Article 16, section 10 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement states "Upon the employee's written request, any disciplinary notice or decision letter will be removed from the employee's official personnel folder after two years..."  Further support is found in the Joint Contract Interpretation Manual (JCIM) under Article 16 page 7 "Arecords of totally overturned disciplinary actions will be removed from the employee's Official Personnel Folder".  If the criteria of Article 16.10 is met, the employee must be put in the form of a written request for the discipline to be removed.  As the paper OPF was converted to Electronic format (eOPF), the employee should utilize form 8043 and submitted to the District Human Resources Manager. The documents to be removed should ber specified on the PS Form 8043.

Another overlooked action that employees should do peridically is review and obtain copies of their training records. These records should include any formal training you have received in your career, such as window training, bulk mail, scheme, etc.  These records can be obtained through the Blue page.  Dor detailed instructions, please go to the Member page. This requries you to register on this Local Website.

In your OPF, you can review your Life Insurance selections, options, etc. Your employment application and other pertinent information regarding your Postal employment is also available.  This is all information that you should peridocially review.

The more information you have, the better off you are, and the better for the Union to properly represent you.