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closed shop

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noun

a factory, office, or other business establishment in which union membership is a condition of being hired as well as of continued employment.
Compare open shop.

Origin of closed shop

An Americanism dating back to 1900–05
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
British Dictionary definitions for closed shop

closed shop

noun

(formerly) an industrial establishment in which there exists a contract between a trade union and the employer permitting the employment of the union's members onlyCompare open shop, union shop
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
closed shop in Culture

closed shop

Technically, a business in which employees must join a labor union before being hired. This practice is now illegal. The term is used synonymously with union shop.

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.