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For a year now, hundreds of nurses at Northern Michigan Hospital have been on strike. Hospital administrators say the strike is about money and an attempt by the union to obtain more power; the nurses claim that they are overworked and short-handed. The nurses feel that their struggle is part of a larger problem, as a nationwide nursing shortage has left about 13 percent of nursing jobs at the typical hospital vacant. Hospital officials deny that nurses are overworked or mistreated.