The union’s members include people who are employees or freelance journalists and who work for the press, broadcasting, publishing, and online media. You can become a member of the UJF if your work involves essential journalistic features and is professional. ‘Professional’ in this context means that a significant portion of your earnings derives from such work that has essential journalistic qualities. This does not include hobbies, such as running a blog or occasionally helping out on a paper or magazine. It is up to you to assess the journalistic or professional nature of your activity. Journalistic supervisors may join the UJF as long as they do not primarily represent the interests of the employer, and are not mainly involved in administration, particularly financial administration. The requirement for entrepreneur journalists, who employ other journalists in addition to themselves, is that their management of the business plays a minor role. Communications officers are eligible for union membership if their work consists of producing news material, either for use by their organization or for wider publication. Student members The UJF also extends membership to journalism students. If you are a student and your course is geared toward a journalistic profession, you can apply for union membership as soon as you start your studies. If your studies only partially concern journalism, you can apply for membership as long as you can show that you aim to become a journalist – for instance by having had a few months of journalistic work experience. Membership subs All Union members pay membership subscriptions. The only exceptions are those, who have retired to pension before 2016. Payment by proxy If you work in a sector covered by collective agreements (print media, publishing, broadcasting), your employer deducts your membership payment directly from your pay. This is done by power of attorney (proxy) where you authorize your employer to pay the union on your behalf. If your employer is not part of such an agreement, you must pay your union membership subscription directly to the union. In these cases, the membership subscription is 1.4 percent of your gross income. The sum includes the payment made by the union to the unemployment fund. Self-payment of subs Freelancers and entrepreneurs also pay subscriptions directly to the union. If as a freelancer you do not belong to an unemployment fund, your membership subscription is 1.0 percent of your gross income. You can either pay every month or annually. If you are a part-time journalist, with your main activity in some other field than communication, your membership fee is 1.5 times the basic rate. Membership subscriptions are tax deductible. Students pay € 4,00 a month. The subscription remains the same until graduation, or before five and a half years have elapsed, after which it increases to normal, minimum €17 a month. Join the union Fill in the application forms (mostly in Finnish) here: New Member / Employee New Freelance / enterpreneur member New Student member