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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.

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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. 2023

How to use closed shop in a sentence

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

Cultural definitions for closed shop

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.
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