LATROBE — About 350 union steelworkers are on strike at Latrobe Specialty Steel Co.

United Steelworkers Local 1537 says members are unhappy with a three-year contract proposal by the company. Their last contract expired just after midnight and they hit the picket lines.

Company officials did not immediately return a call for comment, but a security guard said workers are walking a picket line.

Union local president Kevin Caruso said workers voted 301-27 to reject the contract. Caruso said this is the first strike at the company that makes special alloys for energy, aerospace and defense industries.

The union said it is upset because the company wants to increase workers' pay using bonuses instead of hourly increases. The company is offering a $6,000 bonus this year and $5,000 bonuses each of the next two years.

PITTSBURGH — A group of Allegheny County bar and restaurant owners has amended its lawsuit that seeks to repeal the county's new 10-percent tax on alcoholic drinks.Friends Against Counterproductive Taxation and various business owners are seeking class-action status on behalf of all licensed liquor establishments in the county.County Executive Dan Onorato championed the tax, along with a $2-a-day car rental tax, to fund the county's transit agency at about $30 million a year. Projections based on the taxes collected since they went into effect Jan. 1 shows the county might collect up to $40 million annually.The group said the tax is based on an illegal state law, among other irregularities.Onorato said the only alternative is a property tax increase.

GLENSHAW — Teachers in the Shaler School District have approved a state fact-finder's report that could end a contract impasse.The school board will vote on the report Monday.The last contract covering about 430 union teachers and other professionals expired Aug. 15. The teachers authorized a strike if a contract was not reached by November, but the union decided not to walk out because the strike vote was close.A two-thirds majority was required when teachers approved the deal Wednesday, though a vote total has not been released.Details of the fact-finder's report have not been released. The deal the teachers rejected in November was for four years.

PITTSBURGH — Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's foundation is donating $100,000 to Pittsburgh-area police departments to buy K-9 units, protective vests and other equipment. The grant is the first of its kind being given in Pittsburgh by the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation.Roethlisberger said he has chosen to focus on K-9 units because a K-9 officer from his hometown of Findlay, Ohio was shot and killed two years ago. He said his foundation also tries to give grants to every city the Steelers visit during the season. The grant will be used by Pittsburgh's police and others in the suburbs.