"Three different industrial relations environments, characterised by different forms of precarious employment and modes of trade union and collective action, show that precariousness is a relative, polemical and normative notion that calls into question the social and institutional foundations of trade unionism. In the French Post Office, trade union activity has succeeded in containing the increase in precarious employment and re-asserting union influence among those employees who have joined the company on unstable employment contracts. In petrochemical plants, a number of insecure experiments are attempting to deal with precariousness, to which insufficient attention has been paid in this sector. Strikes have broken out in the fast-food industry, although the trade unions have been unable to gain a real foothold here. The challenge to the trade union movement is all the more radical since the twin reference points of the firm and the industry have lost their relevance as the foundations for trade union organisation and representation and the occupational space concerned offers little prospect of stabilisation."

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