Labor News & Commentary December 5 Gen Z men are the most pro-union generation in history & more

[Omaha Steve]

https://onlabor.org/december-5-2025/

By Sophia Leswing

Sophia is a student at Harvard Law School and a member of the Labor and Employment Lab.

In today’s news and commentary, Netflix set to acquire Warner Bros., Gen Z men are the most pro-union generation in history, and lawmakers introduce the “No Robot Bosses Act.”

Today, Netflix, Inc. announced it has entered an agreement to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., including its film and TV studios, HBO Max and HBO, for $82.7 billion. The deal would give Netflix, who is already the world’s largest paid streaming platform with over 300 million subscribers, even greater bargaining power over entertainment-industry unions such as the WGA, SAG-AFTRA, DGA, and I.A.T.S.E. A spokesperson for the Directors Guild of America told Deadline that the acquisition “raises significant concerns for the DGA” and that it believes “a vibrant, competitive industry — one that fosters creativity and encourages genuine competition for talent — is essential to safeguarding the careers and creative rights of directors and their teams.” More unions are expected to comment on the corporate consolidation, like the Writers Guild of America East and West who called the potential merger of Paramount and Warner Bros in October of this year “a disaster for writers” and vowed to “work with regulators to block the merger.”

On Wednesday, a bipartisan coalition of congressional lawmakers introduced the “No Robot Bosses Act” (H.R.6371), which would “prohibit certain uses of automated decision systems by employers.” If enacted, the bill would bar employers from exclusively using automated systems to make major employment decisions, such as hiring or firing someone, and would require companies to ensure their systems are compliant with federal employment discrimination laws through recurring audits. The bill would also mandate that employers disclose to job applicants and employees when, why, and how an automated decision system is used to make an employment-related decision.


Earlier this week, the Center for American Progress (CAP) published, “Why Gen Z Men Are the Most Pro-Union Generation in History: Unions Build Stable Finances.” The article found that, based on polling data from 2024, Gen Z men (those born between 1997 to 2012) have the highest approval rating for unions compared to any other generation or gender group in history, likely because of the increased difficulty for young men today in achieving financial independence. Comparison of average union approval ratings by generation and sex during presidential election years, including when older generations were the age of Gen Z today, showed that 65.5% of Gen Z men in 2024 approved of unions as compared to 58.7% of Millennial men in 2008, 56.4% of Generation X men in 1992, and 51.8% of Baby Boomer men in 1972. The highest union approval rating for women across these four generations was Gen Z women in 2024 at 60.3%. A possible explanation for Gen Z men’s high union approval rating is that unions boost financial stability — a 2025 survey by CAP revealed that men aged 18 to 29 with a union job were much more likely to feel financially stable than their nonunion counterparts.