Cowboys cheerleaders unionize (Getty Images)
The squad has 36 active members. Until 2025, most veterans reportedly earned about $15 an hour. In 2014, Lacy Thibodeaux-Fields, then an Oakland Raiderette, sued her team. The football team is 2-4, and one fan needled the team by saying the cheerleaders are the only ones winning.
The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association announced the move Friday, saying the team agreed after a “meaningful discussion. The Dallas Cowboys have formally recognized their cheerleaders as a union. ” Bargaining can now begin, and no NFL cheer squad has ever reached a contract. Pay is the center of it. Getting from there to a bargaining table took years of organizing, and a Netflix series that carried the pay fight to a bigger audience. The team did not force a fight over recognition. It agreed voluntarily, through a brief joint release with the cheerleaders’ association. The statement praised the squad’s talent and dedication. Pay terms were not in the portions quoted in early coverage. Voluntary recognition can spare a group a long fight over whether it may organize, so the cheerleaders can head straight to bargaining. If talks succeed, Dallas would be the first NFL cheer squad to reach a contract. Only one other team has tried to organize. The Buffalo Jills made a short-lived attempt in the mid-1990s, and it did not last. The fight reaches well beyond Dallas. NFL cheerleaders have been pushing for better pay for a decade. Dallas is now believed to be the first pro cheer squad in the country with a union. Fans were quick to pick a side. Another hoped the idea spreads to every NFL squad.
How $15 an hour became a bargaining table
In 2019, the Cowboys settled a lawsuit with a former cheerleader, and pay per game rose from $200 to $400.
Megan McElaney, one of the women who led the push for higher pay, said in the show’s final episode, “Our efforts were heard. Kelli Finglass called the effort to raise wages “60-plus years long overdue” on the show’s second season. Start with the money. It helped. It was still small money. None of it happened by accident. The cheerleaders worked together behind the scenes for years, and at one point they threatened to stage a walkout. She added, “I get emotional knowing that I was a part of that. The team’s own director backed the cause. Coming from the person who runs the squad, that line carried weight.