SAG-AFTRA Opposes Paramount Skydance–Warner Bros. Discovery Merger, Backs Antitrust Lawsuits

SAG-AFTRA has formally joined the labor opposition to the proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Paramount Skydance, saying its national board voted to back lawsuits already filed by a coalition of 12 state attorneys general and by the Writers Guild of America to block the deal.

In a press release Saturday, the union said its National Board adopted a resolution July 25 publicly opposing the transaction and supporting the states’ antitrust case. The resolution also expressed solidarity with the WGA and with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which had previously urged regulators to require worker protections.

The move matters because SAG-AFTRA, which represents about 160,000 performers and media professionals, is the latest major Hollywood union to line up against the roughly $110 billion merger. Its support adds labor pressure to an already active court fight, even after the U.S. Justice Department declined to challenge the transaction.

SAG-AFTRA said its concerns center on what a larger combined company could mean for workers: fewer film and television productions, more outsourcing and weaker leverage for performers, writers and other entertainment employees. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s national executive director and chief negotiator, said the merger should not proceed without enforceable worker protections.

“This consolidation must not go forward absent binding assurances that production won’t be reduced or be outsourced to cut costs, and that any trends in that direction will be reversed,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “A handshake, a smile and the promise of good intentions are simply not enough.”

The legal fight is already moving on multiple fronts. A multistate coalition led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued on July 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, seeking to block the merger under Section 7 of the Clayton Act, the federal antitrust law that bars acquisitions whose effect may be to substantially lessen competition. On July 20, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín issued a temporary restraining order barring the companies from closing the deal while the court considers the states’ request for a preliminary injunction.

The Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East filed a separate lawsuit in the same court on July 14, alleging the merger would harm writers in markets including big-budget films, episodic television, streaming series and overall deals. Public reporting on July 24 said the parties agreed not to close the transaction until the earlier of five days after a merits ruling in the states’ case or June 1, 2027.

SAG-AFTRA’s resolution comes despite the Justice Department’s decision not to sue. The department’s Antitrust Division said on June 12 that it had closed its own investigation after concluding the transaction “is not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers.”

That leaves the states’ case and the WGA’s separate challenge as the main legal obstacles to the merger, with SAG-AFTRA now publicly aligned behind both efforts. The union’s president is actor Sean Astin.

The proposed Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery deal was announced Feb. 27 and has been widely valued at about $110 billion.