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On request of the CGT Textile Federation a survey on the closure of three textile fabrics, Lévis, Cellatex and Mossley was carried out in 2003 among their former salaried employees. Three key times – announcement of the closure, struggles and after conflict time – were studied to account for the consequences of the end of work: a trauma and a possible personal reconstruction. The central question is: how can workers reconstruct themselves after a trauma from redundancy? In all three cases one observed the existence of associative structures that ensured former salaried employees a sort of watchfullness and mutual aid and enabled them to experience cultural activities (cinema, theater, writing) and to become actors themselves and “objects of culture”. We study here how this cultural appropriation contributed to the reconstruction of their integrity.