Over half of Finnish workers belong to a trade union

Just over half of Finland’s working population are members of a trade union, according to a new survey by the Federation of Finnish Enterprises (Suomen Yrittäjät).

The figure marks a decline from summer 2018, when 65 percent of workers reported union membership.

The most common reason cited for not joining a union was the cost of membership fees. Only one in four respondents supported the recent removal of tax deductibility for union dues, a change that took effect at the start of the year.

The survey, conducted by research firm Verian, collected responses from just over 1,000 working Finns. The margin of error for the overall result is three percentage points at the 50 percent level.