The Union of Journalists in Finland

Look after your rights - Safeguard journalism

Founded in 1921, the Finnish Union of Journalists is an independent trade union with over 15,500 members working in journalistic professions.

The union’s members work for newspapers and magazines, radio and television, companies, publishers and on-line publications.

The majority of the union’s members are in contractual employment. There are a growing number of people in freelance and piecework, and the improvement of their working conditions is in everyone’s interest.

The membership of the union is growing continually. Over half of members are women. The proportion of members who are freelancers, students and retired people has expanded in the 2000s.

The main tasks of the Union of Journalists

• The duty of the Finnish Union of Journalists is to improve the financial and professional position of its members and their conditions of work, regardless of what sort of work they do.
• The supervision of interests stressed collective bargaining, which complements the defence of members’ interests at workplace and individual levels.
• The network of elected union officials is central to the supervision of interests locally. The union trains its members to supervise their basic interests fruitfully.
• The supervision of interests means influencing legislation in collaboration with the trade union movement and other actors, including at international level.
• The union defends journalists’ copyrights.
• The union has a special responsibility to defend journalism and its ethical rules. The union promotes freedom of speech. The aim of its communications policy is to safeguard the diversity of the media.
• In order for it to accomplish its tasks successfully the union’s membership must be active and aware of its rights, and the union must have an efficient organizational structure.

Higher wages and better conditions

The union’s main task is to increase journalists’ pay and improve their working conditions. This applies to all members regardless of the kinds of employment in which they are engaged.

If employees in permanent jobs fare badly, so do freelancers and pieceworkers. If freelance wages are depressed and pieceworkers are exploited, permanent employees in the same media strongholds also suffer.

The common good requires that journalists’ financial situation is improved. This also ensures better journalism.

The union negotiates collective agreements and pleads the common cause of its members

The Union of Journalists negotiates collective agreements for journalists working with the press, the Finnish Broadcasting Company, MTV3, Sanoma Entertainment, independent producers, for editors working for book publishers and for freelancers. Negotiating strong agreements constitutes the union’s most important task.

The union also advises, negotiates and when necessary pleads individual causes in legal proceedings in all work-related problems affecting members.

The network of elected union officials is central to the supervision of interests at the local level. The chief shop stewards represent the union’s members in companies, advise members and oversee compliance with agreements.

In addition, the union’s office and ombudspersons provide advice for scores of individual members on a daily basis by phone and email. Union officials with legal training are versed in collective bargaining agreements, employment legislation and media law and are equipped to assist all union members.

The union also provides training for its members in basic and beneficial interest supervision.