Unions Urge Labor-Related Skydance/Paramount Conditions

The FCC should cement Paramount Global's and Skydance Media's "general labor-friendly statements with specific, binding merger conditions" that maintain minimum levels of union-created content and station-level employment, labor unions said Tuesday in docket 24-275. The International Brotherhood of Teamsters Hollywood Local 399, Writers Guild of America West and Writers Guild of America East said Paramount and Skydance have maintained that New Paramount will have strong demand for union-created programming and good partnerships with organized labor. But they also have indicated that the $8 billion Skydance/Paramount deal, announced in July (see 2407080025), could prompt significant job cuts, the unions said. Worker-related merger conditions, the union filing said, would be in line with the FCC Media Bureau's hearing designation order in Tegna/Standard General (see 2302240068), which emphasized that jobs and journalists relate directly to localism and the public interest.