McDonald Steel workers ratify new contract

McDonald Steel workers ratify new contract

MCDONALD

Workers in United Steel Workers Local 1307 and Teamsters Local 377 at the McDonald Steel Corp. plant ratified a new contract this week.

The plant has 75 employees who are co-represented by both unions.

The new three-year contract includes wage increases, health care at no cost to the employee, vacation improvements and an increase in the workers’ 401(k) retirement savings plan.

More than 60 percent of the workers voted in favor of the contract.

McDonald Steel specializes in precision-engineered, hot-rolled special steel shapes.

Group asks court to put minimum wage issue on ballot

CLEVELAND

A union-backed group seeking to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in Cleveland is asking the Ohio Supreme Court to put the issue on the November ballot.

City attorneys argue it’s too soon for the court to decide anything because Cleveland’s council hasn’t voted on legislation automatically created by the group when it submitted wage hike petitions in May. Council is expected to vote on the legislation Wednesday.

Council leadership and Mayor Frank Jackson oppose raising the minimum wage in Cleveland alone, fearing it could cause businesses to close or move elsewhere. Cleveland attorneys also argue that city charter time lines won’t allow for a November vote.

Dollar Express regrets that Muslim was asked to leave

GARY, Ind.

A dollar-store chain says it regrets that an employee told a woman to leave one of its Indiana stores because of her Muslim face veil.

Sarah Safi posted video on Facebook on Monday showing her exchange with a clerk at a Gary, Ind., store. In the video, a manager tells Safi that she has to remove the veil covering or leave. When Safi tells her it is a religious garment, the manager explains that it is in a high crime area and the store gets “robbed a lot.”

Store owner Dollar Express says it’s addressing the incident with the employee and is working “to ensure that no customer is ever treated this way again.”

Facebook again battles ‘clickbait’

NEW YORK

Facebook is taking another stab at ridding users’ news feeds of “clickbait,” the links and headlines that ask readers to “guess what happened next” but don’t provide any useful information, tempting people to click if they want to find out.

The world’s largest social media company last tried this in 2014, when it announced that it was improving users’ news feed to help them find what was “interesting and relevant” and weed out “spammy” stories.

It looks like that didn’t work as well as it should have, though Facebook says it helped.

Facebook said Thursday it is now using a system that identifies phrases commonly used in “clickbait” headlines.

Staff/wire reports

Selected local stocks

STOCK, DIVIDENDCLOSECHANGE

Alcoa Inc., .1210.40-0.01

Aqua America, .71 33.72-0.10

Avalon Holdings,2.350.11

Cortland Bancorp, .2815.500.20

Farmers Nat., .169.500.15

First Energy, 1.44 32.93-0.13

Fifth/Third, .5218.87-0.09

FirstMerit Corp., .6821.00-0.04

First Niles Financial, .129.750.00FNB Corp., .4812.320.14

General Motors, 1.5230.340.10

General Electric, .9231.170.04

Huntington Bank, .28 9.35-0.03

iHeartMedia Inc.,1.300.01

JP Morgan Chase, 1.9264.56-0.10

Key Corp, .3411.730.06

LaFarge, .3417.570.00

Macy’s, 1.51 33.690.26

Parker Hannifin, 2.52 118.965.18

PNC, 2.0483.880.03

Simon Prop. Grp., 6.40219.62-2.69

Stoneridge 17.20-0.11

Talmer Bank, .20 21.16-0.02

United Comm. Fin., .10 6.68-0.03

Selected prices from Thursday’s 4 p.m. close.