DALLAS (AP) — Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders are unionizing.
The NFL franchise has agreed to recognize the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association as the collective bargaining representative of one of the most famous cheerleading squads in professional sports, the two parties announced in a joint statement Friday. The move follows years of cheerleaders fighting for pay raises.
“The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are a valued part of the Cowboys organization, deeply respected for the talent and dedication they demonstrate,” the release said. “They remain one of the most sought-after opportunities for talented dancers in the world. »
During the second season of the Netflix series “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders,” which aired last year, one of the cheerleaders said the members received a 400% salary increase.
The Cowboys settled a lawsuit with a former cheerleader in 2019, leading the team to double members’ per-game pay to $400.
The first cheerleading team to unionize was the Buffalo Jills, the Buffalo Bills team. 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 later voted to join. The team then disbanded after a trial in 2014 filed by former Jills who said they worked hundreds of hours for free and were subjected to sexual touching and comments.
Victor Chen, a professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who studies labor issues as a sociologist, said Friday that the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders were likely helped by such notoriety and the Netflix show.
Chen said that without this notoriety, the team might have simply tried to replace cheerleaders because there are so many people willing to take jobs in the low-wage entertainment industry.
“So you see a lot of inequality in pay in any kind of arts or entertainment field, where there are a lot of people who are clamoring to get into it and maybe not paid at all or very poorly paid to do it,” Chen said.
The Cowboys are the most valuable professional sports team in the world, according to Forbes magazine.
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Funk was reported from Omaha, Nebraska.
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