Three hundred workers at Plymouth’s Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station are gearing up for a potential strike next week if bitter conTract talks aren’t resolved. Members of the Utilities Workers Union of America Local 369 say they’re not optimistic about reaching a new contract agreement and are prepared to walk off the job Thursday at the 36-year-old facility. Pilgrim’s owner, New Orleans-based Entergy, is already training workers, brought in from other states, to keep Pilgrim up and running if a strike occurs. Dave Tarantino, an Entergy spokesman, said yesterday that the company has a required “contingency plan” that it recently filed with the federal government in the event of a strike. “We certainly don’t want to use it, but we’re prepared,” said Tarantino. The union has had tense negotiations before with past owners of Entergy - only to reach last-minute agreements. But in 1986, union members went on strike for six weeks. At that time, Pilgrim was already down for repairs, so the union couldn’t claim it closed the plant. But Gary Sullivan, president of Local 369, said he can’t see how Entergy can run Pilgrim without its 300 workers. Pilgrim employs about 650 people. “In our opinion, they’re going to have to shut down the plant” if a strike occurs, he said. Sullivan said he sees a “less than 50-50 chance” of reaching an agreement before the current four-year contract expires on Wednesday. Pilgrim produces about 680 megawatts of power, or enough electricity for 600,000 homes. A spokeswoman for ISO New England, which oversees the New England power grid, would only say yesterday that the organization is always prepared for planned and unplanned shutdowns of power plants. Disputes over health-care benefits, pay and work rules are at the center of contracts talks. “We don’t have anything to give up,” said Sullivan, insisting the union has made too many concessions to owners in the past to keep the plant open. He said Entergy doesn’t have enough workers at the site but keeps cutting personnel and putting pressure on remaining employees.