shop steward

American

noun

a unionized employee elected to represent a shop, department, or the like, in dealings with an employer.

shop steward British

noun

a coworker elected by trade union members to represent them in discussions and negotiations with the management

"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

Etymology

Origin of shop steward

First recorded in 1910–15

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

shop steward

Escobar became a shop steward but didn’t think of getting more involved in labor leadership until the early 2000s, when drivers twice crashed into his idling fire truck.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2025

A trade union shop steward in Glasgow's shipyards before he moved into football, Ferguson's final team talk concentrated on working-class values.

From BBC ● May 7, 2023

In October 1991, Ms. LaTour struck up a conversation on an uptown Manhattan A train with Russell Smith, a union tour guide and shop steward.

From New York Times ● Apr. 6, 2023

The reader should know that my grandfather was a conductor and shop steward.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 2, 2022

Of course Bailey, the shop steward, would take his usual delight in bringing that up.

From Meeting of the Board by Alan Edward Nourse

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023