There’s a bit of a production happening in California right now because Hollywood itself has become a show. Paramount’s pending purchase of Warner Bros Discovery has hit roadblocks after the state’s attorney general filed an antitrust suit that’s holding up proceedings. Paramount then threatened to leave California to resolve the issue, and that threat riled up Big Labor, which threw its own wrench into the merger.
How this madness resolves is anyone’s guess, but the Teamsters are involved with their typical bluster intact. This union asked the Justice Department to halt the merger, and Teamsters Hollywood chief Lindsay Dougherty predictably labeled Paramount’s actions as “corporate greed” that will take jobs out of Los Angeles. The Writers Guild of America further shared the sentiment to apply more pressure, and Paramount is aggressively pushing back in court to counter the financial damage that these halting tactics are causing.
This is all with the goal of pushing Paramount to abandon its plans, and for businesses that don’t touch Hollywood, it’s tempting to write this off as a far-away tale, but this should be a story that every employer watches.
In fact, unions often respond to mergers by forcing employers’ hands through public sentiment and by lobbying the government to do their bidding.
A Familiar Union Tactic In Many Industries
Grocery: In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) claimed “victory” after two courts, one at the federal and one at the state level, issued preliminary injunctions to halt a proposed merger between Kroger and Albertsons. Prior to the FTC filing suit in the matter, several UFCW locals formed a “coalition” called “stop the merger” to drum up public sentiment for their views. In doing so, union representatives testified in front of the FTC. After courts issued the injunctions, the grocers abandoned merger plans, and of course, the unions also claimed “victory.”
Healthcare: A trio of examples is coming your way.
- In 2023, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers’ Healthcare branch and Minnesota Nurses Association pressured lawmakers into opposing a merger between Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services. After lawmaker scrutiny and public backlash, Fairview backed out of the pending deal.
- In 2025, merger plans between Oregon Health & Science University and Legacy Health were abandoned after lobbying by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees. This lobbying prompted regulatory scrutiny from the Oregon Health Authority.
- Currently, Allina Health’s pending acquisition of Sutter Health is being opposed by the Service Employees International Union and various nursing unions, which are asking state regulators to shut the deal down before it would take effect in late 2026.
Telecommunications: In this industry, Communications Workers of America (CWA) took a different approach by supporting a merger in exchange for a union neutrality stance. This took place in 2011 during the pending AT&T-DirecTV merger, and AT&T responded by agreeing to voluntarily recognize CWA’s unionization of its workforce. At the time, Big Labor viewed CWA’s strategy as controversial, since mergers can lead to job losses, but the CWA’s strategy ultimately stands as another example of how unions can leverage merger proceedings for their own goals, whatever they might be.
A Merger By Any Name Sounds As Sweet For Unions
As the above examples show, a merger isn’t simply a merger to unions, which will pounce according to what’s best for their own ends. In many of these scenarios, unions were quick to apply leverage geared toward public sentiment to gain their desired results. Whereas with the AT&T example, the union decided that pressuring an employer into a neutrality agreement was worth more bang for their (union-dues) bucks.
What the Teamsters are trying to pull with Paramount’s proceedings is nothing new, but it does provide a reminder that Big Labor loves to leverage a merger or acquisition as a bargaining chip, and employers would do well to anticipate that tactic.
