Closed Shop

closed shop

Arrangement whereby a company employs only workers who are members in good standing of a specified labour union. It is the most rigid of the various schemes for protecting labour unions (more flexible arrangements include the union shop). Closed shops were declared illegal in the U.S. under the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, but in practice they continue to exist in some industries, such as construction.

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closed shop

An environment in which only data processing staff is allowed access to the computer. Contrast with open shop.

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closed shop [¦klōzd ′shäp]

(computer science)

A data-processing center so organized that only professional programmers and operators have access to the center to meet the needs of users.

(industrial engineering)

An establishment permitting only union members to be employed.

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closed shop

A construction project operating under a work system that requires membership in a particular union as a necessary condition of employment.

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Closed Shop 

in capitalist countries the demand presented by a trade union to an entrepreneur that the latter hire only members of that particular union. In making these demands, the union often assumes the obligation of supplying the entrepreneur with the labor force needed. Under preferential hiring, which is a variety of the closed shop, the entrepreneur pledges to give preference to members of this union in hiring workers. The demand for the closed shop is resisted by entrepreneurs, whose interest is in weakening the trade unions. In the USA the closed shop is prohibited by the federal Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 as well as by the laws of several states. The closed shop is also prohibited in several provinces of Canada, in Australia, and elsewhere.