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Within the French state-owned aircraft company, one specific institution, the local works council (comité d’établissement, CE), was central to industrial relations and represented one of the most visible aspects of trade unions’ activities. As it had responsibility for spending very large budgets, control of this committee was important to both management and unions and it became an institution where social and economic policies were decided upon and implemented. Relations between the trade unions fluctuated between different forms of competition and rivalry as well as cooperation and different types of alliance emerged. These factors influenced the development of the CE over time and its activities from the 1940s to the 1970s. Based on archives from the CE, trade unions and the company, the aim of this article is both to understand how the different actors gained power within the institution and to analyze the policies that were adopted primarily in the social field. The original idea of the CE, as envisaged by the legislator, was of an institution to facilitate cooperation between actors. It appears, however, that different visions of its aims and activities were held both by management and elected members.