The Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders are unionizing. The NFL franchise has agreed to recognize the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association as the collective bargaining representative for one of the most famous cheer squads in professional sports, both sides said in a joint statement Friday. The move follows years of the cheerleaders fighting for pay increases. “The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are an esteemed part of the Cowboys organization, deeply respected for the talent and dedication they exhibit,” the statement said. “They remain one of the most sought-after opportunities for talented dancers worldwide.” During the second season of the Netflix series “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” which aired last year, one of the cheerleaders said that the members were getting a 400 per cent boost in pay. The Cowboys settled a lawsuit with a former cheerleader in 2019 that led to the squad doubling the per-game pay for members to US$400. The first cheerleading squad to unionize was the Buffalo Jills, the squad for the Buffalo Bills. The Jills won a ruling from the National Labor Relations Board in 1995 allowing them to form the National Football League Cheerleaders Association, and they then voted to join it. The squad later disbanded following a 2014 lawsuit filed by former Jills who said they worked hundreds of hours for free and were subjected to groping and sexual comments. Virginia Commonwealth University professor Victor Chen, who studies labour issues as a sociologist, said Friday that the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders were likely helped by having such a high profile and the Netflix show. Chen said that without that notoriety, the team may have just tried to replace the cheerleaders because there are so many people willing to take jobs in the entertainment industry at low pay. “So you see a lot of that inequality of compensation in any sort of artistic or entertainment field where you have lots of people clamouring to get into it and maybe being unpaid or very poorly paid to do so,” Chen said. The Cowboys are the most valuable pro sports team in the world, according to Forbes magazine.
