union shop

American  

noun

1. a shop, business establishment, or part thereof, in which terms and conditions of employment for all employees are fixed by agreement between the employer and a labor union.

2. a shop, business, etc., in which membership in a union is made a condition of employment, but in which the employer may hire nonunion workers provided that they become members after a stated period, usually 30 days.

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union shop British  

noun

1. (formerly) an establishment whose employment policy is governed by a contract between employer and a trade union permitting the employment of nonunion labour only on the condition that such labour joins the union within a specified time period Compare open shop closed shop

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union shop Cultural  

1. A business or industry in which all new workers must join a labor union after a specified period of time. (See closed shop and right-to-work laws.)

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Etymology

Origin of union shop

First recorded in 1900–05

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

union shop

Conversations no longer focused on his dad’s latest story, but on the duties he had to fulfill as a union shop steward.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 11, 2023

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

Brown, who wears suits purchased from a union shop near his Cleveland home, has developed an old-school network of union support over a decades-long political career that began in the General Assembly.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 3, 2023

I figured that since it was a union shop I could get health care coverage, but I was always scheduled just a few hours shy of qualifying for full-time status.

From Salon ● Dec. 26, 2018

A marked difference in costs of production will cause the free shop to grow and the union shop to shrink.

From Essentials of Economic Theory As Applied to Modern Problems of Industry and Public Policy by Clark, John Bates