This week, Howes says the strange United Auto Workers strike against General Motors Co. is getting stranger in the wake of a tentative agreement. Instead of returning to work pending ratification by Friday, union leaders are keeping members on picket lines as they consider details of a new four-year agreement. And nowhere to be seen or heard from is union President Gary Jones, whose public appearance before the media likely would devolve quickly into embarrassing questions about his implication in the federal investigation into union corruption.