Hospitals haven't seen a regional "en masse" strike threat by nurses since the now-resolved Minneapolis/St. Paul standoff. However, nursing unions don't appear to have any plans to take a strongly conciliatory tone in contract negotiations. After six months of fruitless talks with North Adams Regional Hospital in Massachusetts, 99 percent of the 106 unionized RNs have voted to strike, reports the Berkshire Eagle. Bargaining sessions between the Massachusetts Nurses Association (MNA) and the hospital are slated to continue through the end of August, and a strike will only occur if the MNA negotiators decide that negotiations have failed. However, the outlook doesn't appear promising to the nurses, who described hospital management as responding "with a hammer" to the MNA's "olive branch." Article