Two top Hollywood unions are calling for California attorney general Rob Bonta and Paramount Skydance CEO David Ellison to reach a settlement on their pending antitrust case because, they argue, industry workers are being harmed by the delayed timeline.
The leaders of the Directors Guild of America and IATSE made the request on Thursday in a letter that claimed their members are already seeing productions being put on hold or canceled as the two companies prepare for a March 2027 antitrust trial. Against a backdrop of already scant work, particularly in the L.A. area, DGA national executive director Russell Hollander and IATSE international president Matthew Loeb argued that the consequences of additional uncertainty would be borne by the rank and file.
“We write to raise concerns about the potential for a prolonged timetable for the litigation… and express to you the importance that you engage directly with each other to negotiate a resolution that ameliorates the anti-competitive aspects of the proposed merger,” their letter stated. “Should such an agreement prove impossible, we would ask that both parties seek to move the start of the trial to an earlier date, as continued delay and uncertainty around the future of WBD only harms our members.”
The leaders of the unions, which together represent roughly 200,000 workers in the entertainment business, conceded that in the past mergers have offered “few benefits” to workers. Still, “While we continue to have significant concerns about the proposed merger, we believe many of these concerns can be addressed through the imposition of enforceable conditions in a binding agreement,” the letter stated.
Suggested conditions include keeping Paramount and Warner Bros. operating as entirely separate film and television studios and remaining sellers in the marketplace. Hollander and Loeb also suggest that the combined company could commit to producing projects in the U.S. “at no less than the average percentage produced in the United States during the past five years” and to keeping Paramount based in Los Angeles, among other suggested provisions.
The letter puts the two unions at odds with their colleagues at the Writers Guild of America, a labor group that has been vociferously opposed to the $111 billion mega-merger and sued to block the deal itself. The performers’ union SAG-AFTRA has also opposed the deal unless “enforceable safeguards” are put in place. The Teamsters union previously called for the Department of Justice to block the deal (which it did not do) unless worker protections are instituted.
The objective with their approach, said the two unions’ leaders, was to mitigate harm to their members. “Our goal, with respect to the proposed merger, has always been to achieve an outcome that ensures a vibrant, competitive marketplace for the production, distribution, and licensing of film and television programming that serves the interests of consumers and filmmakers alike,” the labor leaders stated. “We believe that these conditions, if secured through a binding agreement, will largely serve this purpose.”
Read the full letter below.
