The best-known cheerleading squad in football now has a union. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders formed the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association, and the Dallas Cowboys agreed on Friday, Oct. 23, to recognize it as the squad's collective bargaining representative, the Associated Press reported.

The team did not fight it. Pro Football Talk noted the Cowboys chose recognition rather than resisting the move, so the squad can go straight to bargaining. No contract terms or bargaining dates have been made public.

Why Pay Is at the Center

The AP framed the union as the result of years of fighting for higher pay. The squad's pay became a national topic through the Netflix series "America's Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders," whose third season came out in June, and Bleacher Report cited a former cheerleader describing a 400 percent raise won by veterans in earlier negotiations.

It Has Been Tried Before

Dallas is not the first squad to organize. Pro Football Talk pointed to the Buffalo Jills, who unionized in 1995 and later disbanded in 2014 after a lawsuit over New York's minimum wage laws. Bleacher Report described the DCCA as the first known NFL squad union, so expect that "first" claim to be argued over. What is new is a team agreeing to bargain with its cheerleaders from day one.

Reporting from the Associated Press, Pro Football Talk and Bleacher Report. More business news on our news page.