In sixty years, the trade union membership rate in France has dropped from 28% to 8%. At the same time, worker trade unions have become increasingly present: in 2004, more than half of all workers claimed that there was a union in their company or council, and the majority of social welfare bodies were jointly managed. Since the mid-1990s, the decline of union membership seems nevertheless to be in check. The last decade is principally marked by the continuation of trade unions and by a reconfiguration of relationships between organisations. Trade union presence and trade union membership are much stronger in the public sector than in the private sector. In certain industries, as well as in companies with less than 50 employees ­which employ close to half of the employees in the private sector ­, the absence of trade union representatives is the rule. In the public as in the private sector, the development of flexible working is curbing trade union membership.