Workers at Smithfield Packing in Tar Heel, N.C. have joined other unionized divisions within corporate Smithfield Foods’ family of independent operating companies by choosing to deal with their employer via a union contract.

Is this a collective-bargaining coup or a roadmap for future ruin? This could be a good thing, but only if both sides operate in good faith.

To that end, both sides of the table should take a lesson from the automobile industry, which finds itself on the brink of financial disaster. Everything we are learning about bad business decisions that have sent the auto industry to the government for a bailout is a warning that should be heeded by all unionized companies.

Having a say on the job may not be the ultimate in job security. That’s my reality. What’s yours?