A factory occupation is recorded in collective memory only in hindsight. A unique factory in a small village in the east of France closed down in 1981. Based on an ethnographic and socio-historical survey conducted in the 1990s, the author examines the apparent lapse of memory related to the long occupation of the factory (eight months) by its employees. In particular, he shows how militants from the CGT trade-union took over the factory buildings during that time. Placed within the context of its history and community, and the partial return to work beyond this, the event marked the abrupt demise of a particular type of village trade-unionism as well as the more gradual extinction of the close relationship between an industry and a locality.