union shop

noun

: an establishment in which the employer by agreement is free to hire nonmembers as well as members of the union but retains nonmembers on the payroll only on condition of their becoming members of the union within a specified time

Examples of union shop in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

SoFi Stadium cook Isaac Martinez, who is also a union shop steward, said workers and the union are asking that ICE and Border Patrol play no role in the World Cup. —Luzdelia Caballero, CBS News, 18 Apr. 2026

As a team leader on a washing machine line and a union shop steward for IUE-CWA Local 83761, Carpenter was used to fielding all kinds of questions at work. —Andrea Hsu, NPR, 11 Aug. 2025

The community’s largest employer, which had been a union shop since its workers won a contentious labor battle in the late 1930s, went through multiple bankruptcies and layoffs in the 1980s and 1990s. —Stephanie Ternullo / Made By History, TIME, 16 Dec. 2024

The restaurant had always been a union shop but in 1999 Brody granted 49% of the ownership to its huge number of employees, who by 2012 owned it outright as a rare ESOP. —John Mariani, Forbes, 1 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1834, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for union shop

• barbershop
• countertop
• lollipop
• mountaintop
• overtop
• photoshop
• tabletop
• turboprop
• atop
• backdrop
• backstop
• bebop

Legal Definition

union shop

noun

: a unionized business in which the employer by agreement is free to hire nonmembers as well as members of the union but union membership within a specified time (as 30 days) is a condition of continued employment compare agency shop, closed shop, open shop

Note: State law determines whether a collective bargaining agreement can have a clause creating a union shop. Many states having right-to-work laws bar union shop agreements.