Cowboys Cheerleaders Unionize After Buffalo’s Costly Precedent

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders union won recognition on Friday, Oct. 23, when the club agreed to bargain with a new group called the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association. The 36-member squad can now negotiate a contract. Recognition is not that contract, and the last NFL cheer union already showed how this path can close.

The Cowboys Recognized the Union Without a Vote

The club and the DCCA put out a joint statement after what they called meaningful discussion of a request for recognition. There was no labor-board election. Tad Carper, the Cowboys’ senior vice president of communications, confirmed the union and declined to say more.

After meaningful discussion between the Cowboys organization and the newly formed Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association (DCCA) regarding their request for recognition, the Cowboys and DCCA are pleased to announce the Cowboys organization has agreed to recognize the DCCA as the collective bargaining representative for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are an esteemed part of the Cowboys organization, deeply respected for the talent and dedication they exhibit. They remain one of the most sought-after opportunities for talented dancers worldwide.

Joint statement, Dallas Cowboys and Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association, Oct. 23, 2026

The DCCA is a new independent group, not a chapter of a national union that already had a cheer contract. A contact for the association was not posted with the announcement, and the club did not say how many dancers the unit will cover. Talks have not been dated. The statement reads like brand language first and a bargaining grant second, which fits a team that needs the squad on camera as much as on the sideline.

A 400% Raise Left Health Insurance Out

The public already thinks the pay fight is over. On the second season of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, which began streaming on June 18, 2025, four-year veteran Megan McElaney said the squad had won a 400% increase she called life-changing. That raise was for the 2025 season, more than a year before the DCCA existed.

Jada McLean, a five-year veteran who retired after 2024, said the headline number does not describe a whole salary. In 2024 she made $15 an hour and $500 per appearance, with rates tied to experience. After the restructure, some veterans could make more than $75 an hour at a game. Practices do not pay that rate. McLean said people who treat 400% as a yearly multiplier are wishing out loud.

PAY STEPS BEFORE THE UNION

McLean also said the 2025 deal still did not provide no health insurance wait. She said it did not provide health insurance. Dancers had a team doctor and a physical therapist because the club treats them as part-time. Wilkins, a former member, sued in 2018 over fair wages; the 2019 settlement is what moved game pay from $200 to $400. The union arrives after those two bumps, not instead of them, which is why the next fight is benefits and hours rather than the hourly rate the show already made famous.

Netflix Cameras Changed the Pay Fight

Veterans including McLean, Armani Latimer, Amanda Howard, and McElaney went to the club early in that 2024 season after Season 1 became a global hit and the next contracts came back without a matching bump. They talked about a walkout. Leadership heard, and the walkout stalled. They let the cameras into the talks anyway.

McLean said there would have been some raise without the series, but not one of this size. Greg Whiteley, the Emmy-winning director of the show, said the timing was probably not a coincidence and that the series maybe played some role, while giving the dancers and the club the credit for the deal. Kelli Finglass, the longtime director, said she and head choreographer Judy Trammell were left out of the first discussions and found that uncomfortable, then said they were glad the dancers were happy with the result.

Whiteley had already described, when the series was announced, the rare unfettered access for the year filmed. Charlotte Jones, the Cowboys’ executive vice president and the cheerleaders’ president, backed that open-door shoot. Season 3 dropped all seven episodes on June 16, 2026. Season 4 is set for 2027 and will follow the 2026-27 squad. The next season of television will sit on top of the first season of bargaining, which is leverage and a reason the club had little interest in a public fight.

Victor Chen, a Virginia Commonwealth University sociologist who studies labor, said Friday the squad’s fame and the Netflix show likely helped, because without that profile a club might have tried to replace the dancers. Entertainment jobs draw long lines of people willing to work cheap, he said, and that glut is how low pay lasts. Dallas did not replace anyone. It recognized the union and kept the brand intact.

The Last NFL Cheer Union Ended in a Shutdown

Dallas is not the first NFL cheer squad to organize. The Buffalo Jills won a National Labor Relations Board ruling in 1995 and formed the National Football League Cheerleaders Association. For the first time they were paid for games, $40 each, after their manager dropped the sponsorship and last-minute backers stepped in. That union did not produce a lasting league-wide cheer contract. The squad kept working until a wage fight ended it.

HOW THE JILLS LEFT THE FIELD

1. 1995: The Jills win an NLRB ruling and vote to unionize, then get $40 a game.
2. April 22, 2014: Former members file wage claims against the Buffalo Bills, the NFL, and the companies that ran the squad, saying they were treated as contractors and left unpaid for much of the work.
3. April 2014: Management suspends operations within days. One discovery file showed a dancer working 360.5 hours and getting paid for 17.5.
4. March 2022: The case settles for $7.5 million, with Cumulus Media paying $4 million and the Bills paying $3.5 million. The defendants admit no wrongdoing.

The Jills never came back. As of late 2025 the Bills still had no cheer squad. Buffalo’s map is not a prediction that Dallas will fold the DCC. It is the only completed NFL cheer-union story on the books, and it ended with the job disappearing after the legal bill arrived. Dallas is choosing a quieter route, voluntary recognition, while the product is still a Netflix series. That is a different tactic. It is not a different risk class if talks sour and the cameras move on.

What the New Union Can Bargain For

The DCCA can bargain over wages, hours, appearances, and benefits, including health coverage the 2025 deal left out. Recognition only opens talks. The Cowboys have not said when those talks start, and the union has not named how many dancers it represents.

STILL ON THE TABLE

• Health coverage: The 2025 raise reworked appearance and game rates and did not add insurance.
• Hours and rate mix: Game pay, practice pay, and extra appearances are still separate, so a 400% figure in one bucket can hide a smaller one in another.
• Job status: The club’s own materials still describe the role as something done beside other work, which is the usual basis for skipping benefits.
• A written contract: If talks succeed, Dallas would be the first NFL cheer squad known to finish one. The Jills never got that far and kept a lasting deal.

Finglass once called a raise 60-plus years overdue on the series. The squad dates to 1961, and the modern dance troupe is younger. During the 1972 reboot, Tex Schramm and Dee Brock had seven dancers chosen from 60 who tried out, then sent them to camp with Texie Waterman. The DCCA is asking that this brand, built as entertainment as much as sport, finally sit across a table like other workers who carry a club’s image.

A $17 Billion Team Still Lists Them as Part-Time

Forbes now puts the Cowboys at a record $17 billion franchise value, up 31% from $13 billion in 2025, with Jerry Jones as owner. The ranking has had Dallas at No. 1 for 20 years. Estimated 2025-season revenue is $1.278 billion. Estimated operating income is $677 million. The football side has not won a Super Bowl since January 1996. The cheer squad is the piece of the operation that still travels, still shoots a calendar, still fills a streaming series, and still works under a part-time label.

The club’s cheerleader FAQ, still on the team site, says the role is not a full-time job and that most cheerleaders hold other jobs or go to college. That sentence is the business model the DCCA now gets to argue with. Online, the recognition was treated like a title. Some of that talk still priced the job at a tiny game stipend Dallas has already raised twice. The gap between the old folklore and the 2025 rates is wide. The gap between those rates and a year-round job with insurance is the one left for the first contract.

Carper confirmed the union and stopped there. The DCCA has not posted a public office, a bargaining calendar, or a member count. Season 4 will follow the 2026-27 squad in 2027. Until a contract is signed, the Cowboys have granted a seat, not a deal, and Buffalo is still the only NFL cheer union whose ending is known.