I don’t know if this caught your eye, with so much being said about the automobile industry’s problems, but it was announced late Thursday a huge slaughterhouse in North Carolina had just voted in the union. Representatives of the 5,000 employees who process pigs for Smithfield Packing will begin negotiations with management early next year.

And I want to find the guy who masterminded that deal because he obviously has the skill and cunning to solve global warming, the crisis in the Middle East and whether or not college football needs a playoff system.

Get this; General Motors is idling every assembly line in America in January and Chrysler is seriously talking about announcing bankruptcy before then. Despite whether or not this is the union’s fault can be argued, but the reason the eleventh-hour talks failed was because the United Auto Workers reluctantly stood their ground.

Granted, it is very shaky ground indeed, but UAW boss Ron Gettenelfinger would not give in to rigorous contract concessions asked by the United States Senate. According to some, had the UAW done so there would be little need for an auto worker to carry a union card after a certain date next year.

On the other hand, Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker is being hailed as the no-nonsense political swashbuckler he is because he held those union tootsies to the fire – did he ever – in a very popular rejection of what many across the nation perceive to be the union of today.

Well, in the midst of all this comes the Smithfield Packing crowd and, in a New York Times article that appeared on Saturday, a lady named Wanda Blue, who reportedly makes $11.90 an hour as a pig counter, bellied up to the reporter to say, “I favored the union because of respect. We deserve more respect than we’re getting. When we are hurt or sick, we weren’t getting treated like we should.”

Far better, Wanda likened the victory to another of recent note. “It’s like how (Barack) Obama felt when he won. We made history.”

Some, especially in the ultra-conservative part of North Carolina, feel differently. They believe it is a monumental blunder because when Smithfield begins negotiations with the union, the unemployment rate will be at a record high and, all around the processing plant, there are a lot of people who would love to count pigs for over $400 a week.

There is another big angle to the total picture. Smithfield was bad about not checking green cards like they should have and, in the last couple of years, about 1,500 Hispanics have “left the company,” so to speak. When that happened, the demographics at Smithfield took on a marked change, the percentage of African-Americans jumping from 20 to 60 percent in the last 24 months.

Please, there is nothing the matter with that – an American worker should replace any illegal immigrant - but there is a solid belief that the Hispanics were “scared” to affiliate with the United Food and Commercial Workers crowd while the African-Americans were hardly so reserved. “Let ‘er rip,” was their belief.

As with anything, you have to follow the money. Obviously those rejoicing in the 2,041-to-1,879 vote figure there is some money that comes along with “respect.” But my hunch is that whoever the union selects to go to the bargaining table on labor’s behalf will be regarded by the Smithfield brass in much the same way – to catch a phrase – a butcher might look at a pig.

And that’s what I can’t get over. The guy who pulled off this winner may be able to cure some dread diseases. How can you get over 2,000 people to embrace collective bargaining when television, radio, the Internet and newspapers all over the world are full of - how shall I say this most delicately – a different prophesy.

I am telling you there are over 100,000 people in Tennessee – people exactly like you and me -- who are getting ready to be horribly and brutally affected by the automotive industry collapse. I am telling you that a record number of people – well over the half-million of just last month – will be laid off this December and January’s forecast may easily double that with all the plant shutdowns.

Respect, you call it? I say in a pig’s ear. Just sit back and watch as the Smithfield catastrophe begins to unfold. I prophesy it is going to break your heart.

royexum@aol.com