Reginald Conrad, age 13, of Middletown, Ohio, for his question:

WHAT IS AN 'OPEN SHOP?'

An "open shop," when you are talking about labor relations, is a place of business, a commercial establishment or a factory in which all of the workers may be employed without regard to their membership oz nonmembership is a trade union.

One of the first demands usually made by a labor union when it is engaged in collective bargaining with an employer, is that the open shop be abolished. The reason for this is that union organizers usually believe that ail attempts at unionization become ineffective when dealing with an employer who demands that he retain the freedom to hire and use nonunion employees if he so desires.

The alternatives to the open shop is the so called "closed shop," or one that is known as a "union shop." It will only hire members of a certain union organization.