closed shop
- noun
- /kloʊzd ʃɑp/
- Construction is virtually the only sector in El Salvador that operates under a closed-shop system.
- operate a closed shop
Examples
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Wisconsin can be the first split state: right-to-work for public sector employees, closed shop for private workers.
Blog text (9) -
Issues: Did the auto workers' union operate a closed shop?
Academic text (1990) -
It's called a closed shop.
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This is a closed shop.
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Of course not, but closed shop laws do the same thing.
Blog text (23) -
On the other hand, closed shop arrangements are a matter of state law.
Blog text (23) -
There are no federal laws that ban closed shop laws, which is why 28 states have these laws.
Blog text (23) -
Rule: The 1947 Taft-Hartley Act outlawed closed shops that required new workers to join a union before they could be employed.
Academic text (1990) -
There are both closed shops (no bargaining) and open shops (bargaining).
Academic text (1996) -
Many factories in the region operate as a closed shop, meaning only union members can be employed there.
Antonyms
How Unionized
Surface Forms
Morphology
The words 'closed' and 'shop' give a general sense of restriction, but a B1 learner who knows the constituents is more likely to interpret it as a shop that is shut or otherwise not open rather than a workplace restricted to union members. The specific legal/labour meaning 'only union members may be employed' is a specialised, institutional sense that is not fully predictable from the parts, so the expression is partially but not wholly transparent.
Etymology
Closed shop gives a clear picture: a shop with its door closed to people who are not in the union. So it means 'a workplace that only hires union members'.