ABSTRACT
The idea of class consciousness disintegration exposes several risks: overstylisation of the past, nostalgic class iconography, ideologism, lack of historical perspective. It is an attempt to avoid these risks, while holding that a rupture with the class paradigm is a central point for understanding unionism. The work conflict situation was in the past the basic source of trade union consciousness, but it has lost its meaning. The decline in class consciousness lets differences emerge between unions and factories. Touraine's focus on opposition as an element in the construction of social movements is a useful approach to the analysis of Eastern European trade unions. As in the identity and opposition cases, it is important to distinguish class and work concepts. Class totality indicates that activists see their 'mission' as being to take part in a general conflict about the social resources involved in industrial production.
