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With twenty-five minutes left to a strike deadline, and Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove saying a strike was almost inevitable (see yesterday?s WIT), the union was able to reach a tentative agreement with the last of its targets in negotiations with the Big Three automakers. Despite what was until yesterday intense opposition from DaimlerChrysler to a settlement including the job creation guarantees that were the CAW?s central concern going into this round of negotiations with the Big Three (see WIT for July 17, 2002), the union was ultimately able to extract promises of new union jobs that Mr. Hargrove described as ?incredible.? Although there was some suspicion that the company was inviting a strike, the key position of many CAW organized plants as the sole suppliers of several product lines and parts to the U.S. market likely played a major role in convincing DaimlerChrysler to agree to terms similar to those reached with GM and Ford (see WIT?s for Sep. 18 and Oct. 1, 2002).