Depicting the history of ragpickers of Bordeaux in the xixth century, this article aims at identifying issues that oppose this corporation to city counsellors and the consequences of their antagonism. The appropriation of their economic territory by the governors will lead them to organize and become more professional by creating unions. But the conditions of this corporatism will marginalize the most vulnerable among them, also causing internal battles that reinforce the severity of social judgments brought against them.