Another major Hollywood union has put out a statement asking the Department Of Justice to block Paramount’s attempted purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery this week, with the International Brotherhood Of Teamsters filing a report today with the DOJ (per THR) outlining worker concerns over the 12-figure merger. Teamsters general president Sean O’Brien—a buddy of the Trump White House, who helped get current Secretary Of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer nominated for her gig—issued a blistering statement today condemning the proposed purchase, saying it “threatens the livelihoods of the very workers who built these studios into industry giants.”
O’Brien, who was voted into his office back in 2022, went on to toss a fair amount of vitriol at the purchase, writing, “We’ve seen what happens when corporations consolidate power: jobs disappear, production leaves American communities, and workers pay the price. The DOJ has a responsibility to stop deals that eliminate competition and harm working families. Unless Paramount and Warner Bros. can guarantee enforceable protections for domestic production and labor standards, this merger can’t be allowed to move forward.”
The Teamsters represent a fairly diverse workforce across the country—notably trucking—that includes roughly 15,000 members working in the entertainment industry. They are, thus, not only concerned about the fact that Paramount’s purchase of WBD is expected to create a ton of layoffs—with Skydance/Paramount CEO David Ellison stating that he sees at least $6 billion in “redundancies” that he’ll be cutting as soon as the debt-laden sale goes through—but also a general reduction in film production that would be disastrous for Hollywood Teamsters. (Ellison has said he expects both studios to keep up their regular pace of 15 movies per year, but the industry remains fairly skeptical on that front.)
So now we’ve got a question of whose cronyism credentials are more potent: David Ellison and his dad are in tight with Trump, which helps explain their confidence at getting this deal to slide through antitrust regulators before any of the delay-based price increases they’ve offered to Warner Bros.’ board kick in. On the other hand, O’Brien is a loud voice in the Republican party, and Trump has shown a frequent willingness to go with whichever of his rich buddies have yelled at him most recently, so it remains to be seen if the Teamsters throwing their weight behind the Writers Guild’s opposition to the planned merger might move the needle there.
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