The aim of this study is to advance understanding of the relationships between trade unions and the city by drawing on the burgeoning literature at the intersection of labour and urban politics research. We analysed the attempts of local unions in France to develop urban-based mobilizations, notably through an in-depth qualitative case study of the Bordeaux area, examining different ways union activists frame their relationships to place. Despite an unfavourable institutional legacy, we found the clear emergence of an urban-based union strategy that takes on board the specificities of place while advancing a working-class agenda. However, the case study also showed that urban-based union activism is not universally recognized by trade union activists as a strategy of revitalization, and can raise dilemmas, particularly in terms of the reproduction of class collective identity.