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By analysing an industrial accident that occurred in Lyon in 1979, this article investigates the dynamics of mobilisation and institutional responses during a context recognised as a crisis. Faced with a mobilisation in multiple forms involving trade union members, political activists and people living near the affected factory who demanded risk control measures, the institutional response gradually led to a normalisation of the situation due to economic imperatives. In this context, the workers gave priority to jobs located nearby, instead of supporting the demands of the neighbourhood committee. This stance ultimately formalised the end of a social protest movement that was a legacy of 1968, while also announcing the fading of the central place held by the working class in French society.