I don't know if they should be paid or not, but isn't this employment voluntary? I know a Jets cheerleader and she has a full time job in an unrelated business. She just does the cheerleading for the love of it and the exposure opportunity. True, it doesn't pay jack, but they get to do stuff like go to all the Jets football games, go to exotic locations for photo shoots (and they don't pay their own air fare to Tahiti), etc. And they hope to get noticed for modeling or media opportunities from the results of those photo shoots (calendars, etc.) (ref. Jenn Sterger of Brett Favre notoriety.)
It never occurred to me that any of these women were actually doing this as their primary means of making a living, but what do I know? I did notice in the video that "hundreds of women try out". Why? It didn't look like an unemployment line. ???
I'm not taking a stand against the lawsuits - just trying to understand...