union shop

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. Cf. nonunion shop.

[1900-05]

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Arrangement under which workers are required to join a particular union within a specified period of time after beginning employment.

Such an arrangement differs from the closed shop in that the employer's choice of new employees is not restricted to union members. Advocates of the union shop argue that it prevents workers from enjoying the benefits of unionism without bearing their share of the costs. Union shops are uncommon in most countries, but they are both legal and common in the U.S. and Japan. In the U.S., workers in an enterprise usually choose, by majority vote, a single union to represent them, though in some states right-to-work laws prohibit requiring union membership as a condition of employment, thus forbidding both the union shop and the closed shop.

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▪ labour

      arrangement requiring workers to join a particular union and pay dues within a specified period of time after beginning employment—usually 30 to 90 days. Such an arrangement guarantees that workers will pay for the benefits of union representation. A union shop is less restrictive than a closed shop, which prevents employers from hiring outside the union.

      In most countries, union shop agreements are uncommon because one union seldom gains exclusive bargaining rights for all of a particular employer's workers. In Japan, where a single union does customarily represent all the employees in a company, union shop agreements are both legal and common. (See enterprise unionism.) In the United States, a single union may be chosen by majority vote to represent all the workers; however, under Section 14(b) of the Taft-Hartley Act (Taft–Hartley Act), a state may outlaw union shop provisions in labour contracts by passing right-to-work laws (right-to-work law), which prohibit requiring union membership as a condition of employment.

      The status of a union shop may also be challenged by its members. This happens when a majority of union employees vote to terminate the union shop provision in their contract—thus removing a union's most desired form of security. Lacking a union shop or a closed shop, workplaces are defined as either agency shops (which require employees to contribute funds equal to union dues but not join the union) or open shops (which require neither membership nor dues payment). Employees in open shops who benefit from the gains that unions achieve through collective bargaining, without sharing the expenses, are sometimes called “free riders.”

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