open shop

noun

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.

Origin of open shop

First recorded in 1895–1900

Related formso·pen-shop, adjectivean·ti-o·pen-shop, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for open shop

Contemporary Examples of open shop

There are a lot of unions whose workers are increasingly in competition with small, open-shop firms.
Obamacare May Put Some Unions Out of Business
Megan McArdle
April 18, 2013

Historical Examples of open shop

Like the Labour Union, they valiantly fought the “open-shop” idea!
The Cricket
Marjorie Cooke
In factory number one the owner is a hard-driving business man, an active spirit in the so-called "open-shop" campaign.
The Book of Life: Vol. I Mind and Body; Vol. II Love and Society
Upton Sinclair
With the depression the open-shop movement took on a greater vigor.
A History of Trade Unionism in the United States
Selig 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 massacre
Walker 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 Steel
Arundel Cotter

British Dictionary definitions for open shop

open shop

noun

an establishment in which persons are hired and employed irrespective of their membership or nonmembership of a trade unionCompare closed 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

open shop in Culture

open shop

A business that employs both unionized and nonunionized labor.