Teamsters Urge DOJ to Block Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger

The proposed merger of Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery — a deal valued at roughly $110 billion — is shaping up to be one of the most contested corporate consolidations in modern entertainment history. In March 2026, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters became the latest and most powerful voice calling on the Department of Justice to block the transaction, submitting a detailed report to the DOJ's Antitrust Division that warned of catastrophic consequences for American media workers [1]. But the union's intervention is only one front in a multi-pronged assault on a deal that has drawn fire from Democratic lawmakers, state attorneys general, public interest groups, and national security hawks alike.

The Deal: How Hollywood's Biggest Merger Came Together

The merger's origins trace back to 2024, when Skydance Media and Paramount Global announced a definitive agreement to combine in an $8 billion transaction, forming Paramount Skydance Corporation [2]. That entity, controlled by David Ellison and backed by RedBird Capital Partners, quickly turned its ambitions to an even bigger target.

On February 26, 2026, Warner Bros. Discovery's board determined that Paramount Skydance's revised all-cash offer of $31 per share — valuing WBD at approximately $81 billion in equity and $110 billion in enterprise value — constituted a "superior proposal" to a competing bid from Netflix [3]. Netflix declined to raise its offer, and WBD formally signed the definitive merger agreement days later [4].

The deal is financed by $47 billion in equity, fully backed by the Ellison Family and RedBird Capital Partners, with additional investment reportedly involving Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds including Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the Qatar Investment Authority, and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority [5]. The transaction was unanimously approved by both boards and is expected to close in Q3 2026, pending regulatory clearances and a WBD shareholder vote [6].

The combined entity would unite some of Hollywood's most iconic intellectual properties — Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and the DC Universe alongside Mission: Impossible, Star Trek, and the NFL on CBS — under a single corporate roof. Paramount CEO David Ellison projected the merged company would generate roughly $70 billion in annual revenue, $16 billion in EBITDA, and command over 207 million streaming subscribers across a combined Paramount+ and HBO Max platform [7]. That subscriber figure would put the new giant in roughly the same orbit as Disney's combined count and far closer to Netflix's industry-leading 325 million subscribers.

The Teamsters Draw the Line

On March 12, 2026, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters submitted a formal report to the DOJ's Antitrust Division, declaring that the proposed merger poses a "direct threat to film and television workers nationwide" [1]. The 1.3-million-member union represents nearly 15,000 rank-and-file Motion Picture Teamsters — the drivers, location managers, animal wranglers, casting directors, and logistics workers who form the operational backbone of film and television production.

Teamsters General President Sean M. O'Brien did not mince words. "This merger threatens the livelihoods of the very workers who built these studios into industry giants," O'Brien said in a statement. "The DOJ has a responsibility to stop deals that eliminate competition and harm working families" [1].

Lindsay Dougherty, Director of the Teamsters' Motion Picture Division, added a pointed warning about the industry's fragile state. "The film and television industry has been in a fragile and fluctuating state for the last several years," she said. "Another mega-merger is the last thing this industry needs" [8].

The union's core demands are threefold: enforceable commitments to increasing and maintaining domestic production; strong labor standards; and guarantees against layoffs and erosion of union jobs. Without all three, the Teamsters say the merger "can't be allowed to move forward" [9].

A Track Record of Broken Promises

Central to the Teamsters' argument is the entertainment industry's history of post-merger job destruction. The union's report to the DOJ cited Disney's 2019 acquisition of 21st Century Fox — a $71 billion deal at the time — as Exhibit A. That merger resulted in the elimination of entire production units, the shuttering of the Fox 2000 label, and approximately 4,000 layoffs across both companies [10][11]. The distribution division was among the hardest hit, with staffers overseeing the domestic rollout of films bearing a disproportionate share of the cuts.

The Teamsters' report also references the broader pattern: the AT&T-Time Warner merger, completed in 2018, was followed by approximately 77,000 job reductions across the combined entity before AT&T ultimately spun off WarnerMedia in 2022 [12]. And Paramount itself has already conducted layoffs in the wake of its Skydance merger.

Industry analysts have estimated that the Paramount-WBD combination could target $6 billion in synergies — corporate shorthand that, in practice, almost always translates to headcount reductions. Insiders anticipate layoffs exceeding 5,000 roles across the combined company [2].

Source: Variety / TheWrap / Industry Reports

Data as of Mar 14, 2026CSV

A Coalition of Opposition

The Teamsters are far from alone in their resistance. The proposed merger has drawn a remarkably broad coalition of opponents spanning organized labor, elected officials, state law enforcement, and public interest organizations.

State Attorneys General: California Attorney General Rob Bonta has emerged as a central figure in the regulatory fight. Bonta announced in February 2026 that the California Department of Justice has an open investigation into the deal and stated that it is "not a done deal" despite passing the federal Hart-Scott-Rodino statutory waiting period [13]. "Whenever there's major corporate consolidation like this, there's a concern that we might see increased prices, lower wages, reduction in competition, limits in choice, lower quality," Bonta said [14]. He has also revealed that he is in discussions with attorneys general in other states — reportedly a coalition of blue-state enforcers — about coordinating a potential legal challenge [15].

Democratic Lawmakers: In Congress, opposition has been fierce. Senator Elizabeth Warren called the merger "an antitrust disaster threatening higher prices and fewer choices for American families" [16]. Senator Adam Schiff emphasized the need for "the highest levels of scrutiny, free from White House political influence" [16]. Senator Chris Murphy went further, promising to break up Paramount's media empire if Democrats regain power [16].

Senators Warren and Richard Blumenthal also raised national security alarms, criticizing the Trump administration for failing to initiate a CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States) review of the deal, given the billions in financing from Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds [5]. Representatives Sam Liccardo and Ayanna Pressley warned that future Congresses "will review many of the decisions of the current Administration, and may recommend that regulators push for divestitures" [17].

Public Interest Groups: A coalition of public interest organizations has separately petitioned state attorneys general to challenge the deal, arguing it would reduce the number of major film studios from five to four and create "a more concentrated market" following Disney's earlier absorption of Fox assets [15].

The Antitrust Puzzle

The regulatory path forward is complex and politically fraught. On February 20, Paramount declared that the deal had cleared the Hart-Scott-Rodino statutory waiting period — the window during which the DOJ can preemptively move to block a transaction [18]. However, legal experts note that this does not prevent the DOJ from subsequently filing an antitrust lawsuit to unwind or halt the deal. Moreover, state attorneys general retain independent authority under state antitrust laws to challenge mergers regardless of federal action.

The antitrust case centers on horizontal consolidation. A Paramount-WBD merger would reduce the Big Five studios to a Big Four, combining two major film production houses, two broadcast/cable television empires (CBS and CNN under one owner), and two competing streaming platforms. Critics argue this gives the merged entity outsized bargaining power over content creators, talent, theater chains, and distributors [18].

From a vertical perspective, the deal also raises concerns about the combined company's ability to privilege its own content across distribution channels, potentially foreclosing rivals from licensing arrangements and reducing the diversity of available programming.

The political dynamics add another layer. Democratic lawmakers have pointedly questioned whether the Trump administration effectively cleared the path for Paramount's bid by discouraging Netflix's competing offer. Warren and other senators demanded information about what Trump officials discussed with Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos before Netflix withdrew from the bidding, alleging that "closed-door meetings" may have been used to tilt the playing field [5].

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (CES5000000001)

Data as of Mar 14, 2026CSV

The Workers' Stakes

Beyond the political and legal maneuvering, the Teamsters' intervention highlights a dimension of merger review that often receives insufficient attention: the human cost.

The entertainment industry's workforce has been battered by successive disruptions. The 2023 writers' and actors' strikes shut down production for months, devastating the freelance and gig workers who make up much of Hollywood's labor force. The ongoing shift from theatrical releases to streaming has compressed production budgets and squeezed middle-class entertainment jobs. And the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence in post-production, visual effects, and content generation threatens to displace workers at every level of the production pipeline.

Against this backdrop, the Teamsters argue that further consolidation would only accelerate the downward pressure on wages, working conditions, and the sheer volume of domestic production. Fewer studios means fewer buyers for content, which means less leverage for workers and their unions in collective bargaining. The union's report specifically warned that mega-mergers enable companies to shift production overseas, to non-union jurisdictions, or to AI-assisted workflows that require fewer human workers.

The data bears out at least part of this concern. Employment in the U.S. Information sector — which includes motion pictures, broadcasting, and telecommunications — peaked at 3,115,000 in November 2022 and has since declined to 2,842,000 as of December 2025, a loss of roughly 273,000 jobs in just three years [19]. While this decline reflects multiple factors including post-pandemic adjustments and broader tech-sector layoffs, it underscores the vulnerability of the workforce that the Teamsters are seeking to protect.

What Happens Next

The deal's fate now hinges on several parallel tracks. The WBD shareholder vote is expected in spring 2026, where approval is widely anticipated given the premium Paramount is offering. But regulatory approval remains the decisive battleground.

At the federal level, the DOJ under the Trump administration has signaled a somewhat more permissive approach to merger review than its Biden-era predecessor, but Assistant Attorney General Gail Slater has indicated the division will still rely on "established theories of harm" [20]. Whether the Antitrust Division will expend political capital to challenge a deal backed by a politically connected buyer remains an open question.

The more immediate threat may come from the states. California's open investigation, combined with potential coordination among other state attorneys general, could produce a legal challenge even if the DOJ stands down. State antitrust enforcement has increasingly filled gaps left by federal inaction, and a deal of this magnitude — with profound implications for California's entertainment workforce — provides both legal grounds and political incentive for aggressive state-level review.

The Teamsters, for their part, have made clear that their opposition is conditional, not absolute. If Paramount and WBD agree to binding, enforceable commitments on domestic production levels, job protections, and labor standards, the union would support the deal. Whether the merging companies will see such concessions as a price worth paying — or whether the deal will proceed over labor's objections — remains to be seen.

What is clear is that Hollywood's proposed megamerger has become a focal point for broader anxieties about corporate consolidation, worker power, media concentration, and the future of American entertainment. The outcome will reverberate far beyond the boardrooms of Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery.