Merger between the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists and Loimu
At its extraordinary meeting on 19 September 2025, the Board of Delegates of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists made a decision to merge the association’s labour market functions with those of the Union of Professionals in Natural, Environmental and Forestry Sciences Loimu. Loimu’s Board of Delegates had already approved the merger of the functions earlier. The merger will take place on 1 January 2026.
On 1 January 2026, the members of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists will become members of Loimu, which will also act as an Akava trade union for highly educated professionals in the food industry. Loimu provides joining members all advisory and legal services related to employment relationships and public service relationships as well as career services.
Loimu also represents members of the food industry in advocacy work and in labour market negotiations in the private sector in the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN as well as in the government, social welfare and university sectors in the Negotiation Organisation for Public Sector Professionals JUKO and in the central organisation Akava. Student activities will also continue through Loimu at all campuses.
Both unions want to strengthen and enhance their member advocacy. The merger will give members better and more effective services. The position of the new union will be strengthened as the number of members increases also in the Akava community. Loimu’s 17,000 members and the 5,700 members of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists make up a union of nearly 23,000 members, and Loimu remains the ninth largest membership organisation of Akava.
According to the Board of Directors and Board of Delegates of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists, the labour market position of the current members will be better secured in a larger trade union.
“Together we can achieve more. With a stronger joint union, we will ensure our members a better position on the labour market. Members of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists will find a good new home in Loimu,” says Simo Tiainen, Chair of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists’s Board of Delegates.
“Loimu welcomes all members and membership associations of the Association of Academic Agronomists amongst the professionals in the natural, environmental and forestry sciences. The importance of the food sector as a form of support and security and source of income for Finnish society is growing all the time. Together, we can further strengthen the position of the food industry and its experts,” says Nella Heikinmäki, Chair of Loimu’s Board of Delegates.
The role of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists is changing
After the merger of labour market functions, the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists will continue to operate as a renewing community of food industry experts and as a member organisation of Loimu. The merger gives the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists more resources to promote food industry expertise, social visibility and science-based approaches.
In the future, the activities of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists will also include the organisation of foundations and grant activities as well as the management of the association’s assets. The association’s current assets, including the Agronomitalo and forest plots, will remain the property of the association.
When the merger takes place on 1 January 2026, the members of the associations will become members of Loimu. The membership is confirmed by paying a membership fee to Loimu. Advocacy services and unemployment security will continue uninterrupted, and the membership fee will remain the same in general.
What is the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists?
The Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists is a service and interest organisation for highly educated experts and students in agriculture, the food industry and the nutrition industry, which safeguards the interests of its members and promotes their professional development. The Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists was founded in 1897.
The Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists has approximately 3,600 currently employed members and is the 22nd largest of the 36 Akava unions. Six salaried employees work at the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists’s office, four of whom will be transferred under Loimu as former employees.
Why the merger?
The merger is based on a desire to strengthen and enhance member advocacy. The merger will give members better and more effective services. Loimu’s position in the Akava community will be strengthened as the number of members increases.
According to the Board of Directors and Board of Delegates of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists, the labour market position of the current members will be better secured in a larger trade union. Following the merger, Loimu will have nearly 23,000 members, and Loimu’s advocacy team of seven people, four of whom are Loimu’s own lawyers, are responsible for Loimu’s labour market advocacy.
If the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists had remained independent, the membership fees of the association would have had to be increased, as a reform of the member register and other digital services would have been needed.
Following the merger, the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists will continue to operate as a renewing community of food industry experts and the association will have more resources to promote the social visibility of food industry expertise and the success of the food industry.
What will be different?
As a result of the merger, the members of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists will also become members of Loimu, which will offer them employment relationship counselling, salary counselling and career services as well as other union member services and benefits. The number of members of Loimu will increase and, after the merger, Loimu will be a union with approximately 23,000 members.
In the future, Loimu will also represent members of the food industry in advocacy work and in labour market negotiations in the private sector in the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff YTN as well as in the government, social welfare and university sectors in the Negotiation Organisation for Public Sector Professionals JUKO and in the central organisation Akava.
After the merger, Loimu will also be responsible for student activities for students of agriculture, food, nutrition, consumer sciences and environmental sciences. The Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists has members who are studying at the Viikki Campus in Helsinki and the University of Eastern Finland’s Kuopio Campus, where Loimu already is active in student activities. Food industry student organisations have the option of signing a student organisation agreement with Loimu if they wish.
The Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists will become a member organisation of Loimu. The 24 regional or industry associations of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists also have the option of becoming member associations of Loimu. As a result of the merger, Loimu will have an even more expansive network of member associations, as Loimu already has a total of 43 regional, industry, workplace and student associations.
Certain key shop steward positions until the end of 2028 have been agreed in the merger agreement prepared by the Boards of Directors of the unions. The members of the current Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists will occupy nine seats on Loimu’s Board of Delegates for the term of office from 1 January 2026 to 31 December 2028. One of the representatives will be a student member. Personal deputies will be elected for the representatives. As for Loimu’s ten-seat Board of Directors, two seats will be occupied by members of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists, one of which will be the position of Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors. Loimu’s committee applications will be carried out during spring 2026, and the committee structure will be changed as necessary. The aim is to at least establish a new entrepreneurial committee, which would also be open to members of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists.
The members’ unemployment fund will remain unchanged, as the members of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists and Loimu are already members of the same unemployment fund, the Unemployment Fund for Higher Educated Employees Erko. Erko and the Unemployment Fund for Education and Science will merge on 1 January 2026 to form the new Unemployment Fund Ote. The creation of the new fund does not require any action from the members, and there will be no changes to the members’ unemployment security or benefits.
The name Loimu will remain unchanged after the merger. An additional reference to food industry experts will be added to the official name to be entered in the register of associations and, as of 1 January 2026, the new official name of the union will be Loimu ry – Luonnon-, ympäristö- ja metsätieteilijöiden sekä ruoka-alan korkeakoulutettujen liitto (The Union of Professionals in Natural, Environmental and Forestry Sciences and Highly Educated Professionals in the Food Industry).
The merger will also strengthen Loimu’s personnel resources and, as of 1 January 2026, Loimu’s office will employ a total of 24 experts and there will be 12 part-time campus promoters across the campuses.
Merger schedule
Summer 2025
The unions’ Boards of DIrectors negotiated and reached an agreement on the terms of the merger.
September 2025
The Boards of Directors of the unions unanimously approved the merger agreement between the Boards of Directors of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists and the Union of Professionals in Natural, Environmental and Forestry Sciences Loimu and proposed its approval to the Boards of Delegates.
The Boards of Delegates held extraordinary meetings and approved the merger agreement.
22 November 2025
The unions’ autumn meetings, where shop stewards will be elected, rules amended and new Loimu member associations approved.
1 January 2026
The merger will take place, and the current members of the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists will become members of Loimu.
Following the merger, the Finnish Association of Academic Agronomists will be a member organisation of Loimu, but it will still also have its own operations.
Further information
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Mikko Salo
Executive director