Contribution to a collective study about trade unionism in the main developed countries. The article presents an overview of the French unions at the beginning of the 21th century. It examines the explanations of the decline of the unionization and of the falling of social conflicts. Conversely, negotiation is developing at the firm level and its scopes appear to increase, that is opening the possibility of a soft and silent deregulation. The organizations of employers and the trade unions form an oligopoly in peace (cartel). The national leaders and the union officers have replaced the vanishing member dues by institutional resources and they have privatized aids and protections traditionally granted to the trade union movement.