open shop
- a factory, office, or other business establishment in which a union, chosen by a majority of the employees, acts as representative of all the employees in making agreements with the employer, but in which union membership is not a condition of employment.
Show More
Origin of open shop
First recorded in 1895–1900
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for open shop
Contemporary Examples
There are a lot of unions whose workers are increasingly in competition with small, open-shop firms.
Historical Examples
Like the Labour Union, they valiantly fought the “open-shop” idea!
The CricketMarjorie Cooke
In factory number one the owner is a hard-driving business man, an active spirit in the so-called "open-shop" campaign.
With the depression the open-shop movement took on a greater vigor.
A History of Trade Unionism in the United StatesSelig Perlman
Under McCullogh's regime this open-shop gumshoe artist had free access to the jail with instructions to go as far as he liked.
The Everett massacreWalker C. Smith
Hence, United States Steels adherence to the open-shop principle was a deep and rankling wound in the side of the labor unions.
United States SteelArundel Cotter
open shop
- an establishment in which persons are hired and employed irrespective of their membership or nonmembership of a trade unionCompare closed shop, union shop
Show More
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
open shop
A business that employs both unionized and nonunionized labor.
Show More
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.