This paper examines how the law frames industrial relations and structures labor conflicts. Indeed, juridicization, defined as the growing uses of law in ordinary interactions like the workplace, is very often confused with judicialization, as the process resulting from more frequent recourse to the courts. The two processes have to be distinguished however, because there are many obstacles to the mobilization of law. Based both on REPONSE surveys (centered on labor relations at workplace) and qualitative data, this paper investigates the social conditions necessary to these processes. It shows notably how the nature of the collectives of workers could explain the place and the uses of law in the transformation of contemporary labor conflicts in France.