This article examines the divergences and disagreements that characterize the interactions between social dialogue actors in French companies. It relies on an original research protocol based on a double-blinded questioning process of one management representative and one worker representative in merchant sector establishments in France (the REPONSE survey). Revisiting Thomas Coutrot’s analysis of the first REPONSE survey round conducted in 1993, the article opens by showing that the representatives of employees and management agree on the majority of surveyed issues. Yet, major disagreements exits, notably concerning the role of employee representatives, the evaluation of local social climate or collective conflicts in companies. This finding remains constant even in the last survey rounds and despite significant changes in firms and promotion of a social dialogue which presuppose the existence of possible and desirable convergences between the different parties. This raises important questions about the social conditions in which recent legal reforms of French industrial relations are being implemented.