closed shop
- a factory, office, or other business establishment in which union membership is a condition of being hired as well as of continued employment.
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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. 2018
closed shop
- (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
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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
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.
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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.