JHL (27.02.2014 - Heikki Jokinen) JHL is the biggest trade union in Finland. At the end of 2013, JHL had a total of 237,359 members. A clear majority of these were female, 161,278. The other 76,081 were, of course, male.
The number of members diminished slightly last year, by 0.6 per cent or some 1,500 people. This was mainly due to an increase in the number of people retiring. JHL attracted 14,300 new members last year.
The most common profession among the new members was ward domestic with almost 600 new members. The second largest group were practical nurses, 533 people. The third largest group were special needs assistants with 413 new members.
Finland is a bilingual country, Finnish and Swedish being the national languages. Some 7,500 JHL members have Swedish as their mother tongue. This accounts for 3.3 per cent of the membership, a little below the percentage of Swedish speaking Finns.
Those speaking languages other than Finnish or Swedish as a first language make up 2.2 per cent of the total membership (5,100). Their number is growing fast – at the rate of some 500 people a year.
The average age of all JHL members was 51 years at the end of last year. The average age of JHL members who work was 48 years.
Three out of four Finnish wage and salary earners are members of a trade union. Trade union density in Finland in 2012 was 74 per cent. This makes Finland the leading country in the European Union when it comes to organising workers. According to the European Trade Union Institute, the average trade union density in the EU was 23 per cent. The Nordic countries are at the top globally in terms of trade union density, the leading country being Iceland.
The second largest union in Finland is Service Union United PAM with 231,457 members at the end of 2013.