One establishment of 20 employees or more out of four has stated that it saw a fall in business activity over the period 2008-2010, a period marked by the greatest postwar recession. To parry the fall in activity, company management have often put in place policies to reduce staff and restrictive wage policies. Such policies have frequently been associated with one or several negotiations with representatives of the personnel: thus, on employment, one establishment out of five stated that it had decreased its workforce and among them, four companies out of ten have been involved in negotiations on job cuts. These negotiations on job cuts are more frequent when the establishment is in a relationship of strong economic or financial dependency. They seem to have a limited impact on the measures actually applied in the company. Although they have a rather favourable opinion of the staff representatives in their establishment, the employees do not necessarily turn to them but keep in perspective their power of influence in a strained context of employment or wages, while having a more marked influence in cases for the implementation of short-time working.