Alabama
At Montgomery rally, Hyundai workers describe difficult working conditions • Alabama Reflector
Workers at Montgomery’s Hyundai plant described difficult working conditions and arbitrary scheduling at a rally Monday evening led by clergy and faith leaders.
The rally came amid a campaign led by the United Auto Workers to unionize the factory and an ongoing vote this week at Mercedes-Benz’s plant in Vance on whether to organize under the UAW.
“We have actually no voice inside of work,” said Gilbert Brooks, a 15-year veteran of the plant who works on machines that take sheet metal and shape them into vehicle parts. “Basically, it is one-sided. Pretty much what Hyundai says goes. They make and break their own rules. Pretty much, you can’t make plans because Hyundai has control basically.”
Brooks, who has been working to unionize the plant since 2014, and several of his colleagues described difficult work conditions, including irregular scheduling.
“If they say we are going to work this Saturday, then they can change it on a dime,” Brooks said. “If they say we don’t have to work, they can change that also. Basically, it is either you do, or you don’t.”
Others pointed to limited bathroom breaks and high temperatures that make it difficult to remain hydrated as they work.
“When I mean extremely hot, it gets so hot in there that you sweat,” said Robert Stozer, another Hyundai plant employee. “Some people have passed out there with the working conditions when it gets hot in the summertime.”
Nearly all those who spoke said they have dealt with health issues as a result of working at the plant. Brooks said he has had operations to address issues with his neck and rotator cuff. Kissy Cox, another Hyundai employee who spoke Monday, said she has had carpal tunnel surgery.
“I got another appointment, at the end of this month, because now my finger — if I close my hand — my middle finger, I have to lift it up with my other hand,” she said. “You have to keep working in the same conditions, with your hands hurting, until you see a doctor.”
Hyundai announced in 2002 that it would open a plant in Montgomery, lured like other auto manufacturers by low labor costs and a large government incentive package ($252.8 million) that included tax abatements, corporate income tax credits and road improvements. The factory opened in 2005.
UAW said in February that 30% of the workers at the Hyundai plant had signed union authorization cards, though it has not provided updates on the numbers since. Employees said they have made steady progress but were waiting to call a vote, and said they have faced push back from management.
“One thing they will do to make it difficult is tell people the plant is going to leave,” Stozer said. “They put all kinds of anti-union stuff on the television, and what the union cannot guarantee, and put all the thoughts into their mind so that they are scared.”
Efforts to form unions have been gathering momentum throughout the South. Volkswagen workers in Tennessee last month voted to organize a union. Mercedes-Benz’s union vote is the first to take place at that plant since it opened in 1997.
The union drives have come under sharp attack from state officials.
Gov. Kay Ivey has called unions “out of state interest groups” and on Monday signed SB 231 sponsored by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, which bans companies from receiving economic development incentives if they voluntarily recognize unions.
Another issue the employees cited was retirement.
“Once we leave, we have no insurance, nothing,” Brooks said. “We are just used, washed up, that is it. A 401K is not a pension, and for the work that we have done, that is what we need, something to continue to help us once we leave.”
The event was hosted by Bishop William J. Barber, II of the Poor People’s Campaign and other clergy members.
For roughly an hour Barber spoke of the need to unite all of those who are impoverished. He told of the profits made by Hyundai and how that benefit has not been extended to workers. Barber offered statistics of how impoverished people are in Alabama.
“Two adults have to earn $22 an hour just to have a basic, living wage,” he said. “Working at a minimum wage, you have to work 90 plus hours a week. Forty percent of this workforce makes less than $15 an hour.”
Barber said in an interview after the meeting that unionization would help improve the economic lot of the state, and referenced Alabama’s refusal to enter into Medicaid expansion offered under the Affordable Care Act.
“This state has too much poverty for governors to be fighting against something that is going to raise wages and give people benefits,” he said in an interview after the meeting. “Especially since these same governors denied hundreds of thousands of people health care through the Affordable Care Act.”
Alabama
March Madness Elite Eight: High-Scoring Alabama Vs. Duke Headlines Top Teams Shooting For 2025 Final Four
Auburn and Alabama are two of the four remaining teams in the men’s 2025 NCAA Tournament with Elite … More
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The 2025 men’s NCAA Tournament is playing out to form with seven of the top-8 seeds advancing from the Sweet Sixteen to the Elite Eight this weekend. That includes all four No. 1 seeds with Auburn, Florida, Duke and Houston shooting to make the Final Four next weekend in San Antonio.
Elite Eight Matchups, Odds And TV Schedule
The Southeastern Conference sent a record 14 SEC teams to the 2025 NCAA Tournament, and all four SEC teams in the Elite Eight have a chance to make the Final Four – No. 1 seeds Auburn Tigers and Florida Gators and No. 2 seeds Alabama Crimson Tide and Tennessee Volunteers.
While online betting is regulated in nearly 40 states with easy access also available for mobile betting, the three most populous states in the U.S. do not offer betting at U.S. Sportsbooks—California, Texas and Florida. These are also states where some of college basketball’s top teams play, like Florida, Houston and Texas Tech of the remaining Elite Eight teams. Also, regulated, legal sports betting is not available in Alabama, where the Crimson Tide and Auburn Tigers entertain and engage fans but not for regulated sports betting.
Panama-based BetOnline has been a market leader for more than 30 years providing more betting options, contests and NCAA bracket pools for fans.
Updated Men’s College Basketball NCAA Tournament Bracket And Scores
BetOnline and leading online sportsbooks provide college basketball betting odds for the most watched and wagered college basketball games including the Sweet Sixteen, Elite Eight and Final Four. Odds and futures refresh periodically and are subject to change, including on props and live betting. Favorites (-) listed, all times Eastern.
Sat., March 29
East – Prudential Center (Newark, NJ)
No. 2 Alabama vs. No. 1 Duke (-7) | Total 174.5 | 8:49 p.m. | TBS/truTV
Pick: Alabama
West – Chase Center (San Francisco, CA)
No. 3 Texas Tech vs. No. 1 Florida (-6.5) | Total 157 | 6:09 p.m. | TBS/truTV
Sun., March 30
South – State Farm Arena (Atlanta, GA)
No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 1 Auburn (-5) | Total 149 | 5:05 p.m. | CBS
Midwest – Lucas Oil Stadium, (Indianapolis, IN)
No. 2 Tennessee vs. No. 1 Houston (-3.5) | Total 124 | 1:20 p.m. | CBS
Pick: Tennessee
The four No. 1 seeds profiles are included below following their Sweet Sixteen wins. The favorites are rewarding bettors and especially moneyline bets as more moneyline parlays cashed in during Sweet 16 games. While no perfect brackets remain across the country in online March Madness pools, many are doing well with all four No. 1 seeds still alive into the Elite Eight along with three No. 2 seeds and one No. 3 seed.
Alabama’s 113 points in their Sweet 16 victory was the most points ever scored by a team in a NCAA Tournament game. The Crimson Tide also set records with 25 made 3-pointers and 51 three-point attempts.
- Alabama 113, BYU 88
- Duke 100, Arizona 93
- Florida 87, Maryland 71
- Texas Tech 85, Arkansas 83 OT
- Michigan State 73, Ole Miss 70
- Auburn 78, Michigan 65
- Houston 62, Purdue 60
- Tennessee 78, Kentucky 65
Betting favorites went 8-0 straight up in the Sweet Sixteen, and 4-4 against the spread (ATS) after Mississippi player hit a 3-point shot at the final buzzer to cover the closing spread (+3.5) in a 73-70 loss to Michigan State, who opened a -2.5 point favorite and took more money.
No. 1 Seeds To The Final Four And National Champions
Since the First Round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament, favorites are 44-12 SU and 30-26 ATS. The over/under game totals are 24-31-1 with Friday night Sweet 16 games going 4-0 to the under.
Since the men’s NCAA Tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985, there have been 62 No. 1 seeds make the Final Four. Of those, 39 made the championship game and 25 have become national champions, including 13 of the past 17 title winners.
Only once in NCAA Tournament history have all four No. 1 seeds made the Final Four, and it happened in 2008.
Auburn Tigers
Most experts believed No. 1 overall seed Auburn had the “easiest” path to the national semifinals. KenPom ratings and research notes that a top-2 NCAA Tournament seed has never made a Final Four if they began the year outside the preseason AP Top 25 like Michigan State. Auburn held the No. 1 spot in the AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll for eight consecutive weeks before Duke took over the top spot on March 10. The Tigers were 25-2 with 14 Quad 1 wins in late February, including a road win over No. 2 Alabama.
Auburn ranks No. 3 in adjusted offensive efficiency despite No. 29 in effective FG percentage shooting (55.2%). Auburn’s adjusted defensive efficiency and effective field goal percentage are both top-15, with elite 3-point defense (29.6%) and block percentage. Auburn made their first and only Final Four appearance in 2019, but the Tigers have never made it to a national championship game. Auburn’s Elite Eight opponent Michigan State is has made the Final Four ten times with their last appearance in 2019. The Spartans won the national championship in 2000 under current head coach Tom Izzo – the last Big Ten team to win the NCAA Tournament with Purdue playing in the national title game last year.
Florida Gators
Florida is 15-1 since a blowout loss at Tennessee Feb. 1. The Gators rolled through the SEC tournament as champions and were on a 6-0 ATS run until failing to cover their first two NCAA Tournament games but rebounding with a double-digit win over Maryland.
The Gators are the nation’s No. 2 efficiency offense with an elite offensive rebounding team. Florida is also a top defensive team, and up to No. 9 in adjusted efficiency and top-5 in effective field goal defense (45.4%) and 3-point defense (29.3%). The Gators made the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2017 and are now 1-game from a Final Four, which they last made in 2014. The Gators won back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007. Florida’s Elite Eight opponent Texas Tech made their only Final Four appearance in 2019 and lost to Virginia in overtime in the national championship game.
Duke Blue Devils
Duke has won 14 in a row and 30 of its last 31 games, scoring 93, 89 and 100 points in three NCAA Tournament games to move back to No. 1 in KenPom’s adjusted offensive efficiency ratings. The Blue Devils sport a 58.2% effective field goal percentage to rank No. 3 in the country. Duke is also the only team to rank top-5 in offensive and defensive efficiency ratings with their 44.4% effective field goal defense No. 1 in the country. The Blue Devils program has made the Final Four 17 times most recently in 2022 with their last national championship victory in 2015. Duke’s Elite Eight opponent Alabama reached its first-ever Final Four last year losing to eventual national champion Connecticut.
Houston Cougars
Houston has the country’s best defense, trapping and forcing turnovers while allowing just 58.4 points per game in winning the Big 12 regular season and conference tournament title. Houston’s 38.4% field goal defense tops college basketball along with Tennessee (38.5%) and Duke (38.5%). The Cougars rank No. 1 in KenPom’s adjusted efficiency defense, and their offense is No. 12 with strong offensive rebounding and the No. 1 team in 3-point shooting (39.8%). Houston also plays at the slowest pace of the remaining tournament teams on offense while forcing the longest possession on defense. Houston has made 8-straight Sweet 16’s and six Final Four’s with their last in 2019. The Cougars have never won the national championship, but were runner-up in 1983 and 1984. Houston’s Elite Eight opponent Tennessee is shooting to make their first-ever Final Four, and making their second-straight Elite Eight appearance and third overall.
As noted previously in March Madness coverage, 21 of the last 22 National Champions have finished in the Top 20 in both adjusted offensive and defensive efficiency ratings by KenPom’s advanced metrics. Five remaining teams fit the profile.
- Duke (1 offense, 5 defense)
- Florida (2,9)
- Auburn (3,8)
- Houston (12,1)
- Tennessee (17,3)
KenPom offensive and defensive efficiency rankings for the remaining teams include Alabama (4,28), Michigan State (23,4) and Texas Tech (5,39).
Elite Eight Betting Trends And Notes
Courtesy of Playbook Sports newsletter and research.
- No. 1 Seeds are 9-3 ATS the last 8 years.
- No. 3 seeds are 4-16 ATS the last 17 years.
- Underdogs off an ATS loss in the Sweet 16 are 1-4 ATS the last 11 years (Texas Tech, Michigan State).
Follow along for more March Madness betting coverage into the Elite Eight this weekend as the top teams shoot for the Final Four at the Alamodome in San Antonio.
You can bet on it.
MORE FROM FORBES
NEWARK — While every team begins the college basketball season wanting to win a national championship, there are others who go into it surrounded by expectations it will.
Duke and Alabama both had that this season. And with the teams pitted against one another in Saturday night’s East Region championship game at Prudential Center, the pressure to meet the expectation has reached a height neither has experienced yet.
“It’s the hardest game to win because you’re balancing two things,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said of playing in the Elite Eight. “One, each team has great momentum going into this game . . . each team has won three games in a row. And then, obviously, you’re an inch away from the promised land, going to a Final Four. With that at stake, it brings out really high-level basketball, desperation and the competitive level, [because] you’re that close.”
Each program’s expectations come from different places.
Duke is steeped in a championship tradition with 17 Final Four appearances and five national titles. Scheyer lived it as part of the 2010 championship team.
But in three seasons since taking over for Hall of Fame coach Mike Krzyzewski, the deepest he’s guided a team is to last season’s Elite Eight.
“It’s heartbreaking when you lose and it’s the best feeling when you win — that’s what you work for,” Scheyer said. “That’s why you recruit. That’s why you build a team. All the time, energy and all that goes into those moments.”
And he’s built quite a team with three freshmen expected to be among the first 10 picks in the 2025 NBA Draft, including star Cooper Flagg, the consensus No. 1 selection.
Alabama’s expectations are mostly rooted in the climb it’s made in six seasons under coach Nate Oats, including reaching the Final Four last season only to fall in the semifinals to eventual champion Connecticut.
“I don’t think we’d want it any other way: If you’re at a program with no expectations and you’ve been there six years, it means you haven’t been doing your job,” Oats said. “Whatever you call it, pressure [or] whatever you want, the expectation is you win. That’s what we expect around here now.”
Many in the Blue Devils’ rotation — freshmen Flagg, Kon Knueppel and Khaman Maluach — weren’t on the team last season. They may feel the pressure spun off that disappointment. But they also have a different one.
The trio has been part of a team that’s rolled to a 35-3 record and is heralded for how well they work together. This is their one and only chance at a national championship, an opportunity the group doesn’t take for granted.
“Every game could be our last, so I think it’s . . . cherishing these moments together, knowing that every game could be our last one together,” Flagg said. “So [we’re] just playing for each other and having that connectivity. It’s kind of what’s got us to these moments all year long.”
“That comes [to] our mind, too, knowing that this could be the last game so that we attack it harder now,” Maluach said. “Go in with the mentality to win and be prepared.”
Each team has more than one thing it will need to combat. Top of mind for Duke is Alabama’s three-point shooting. The Crimson Tide (28-8) went 25-for-51 on three-point in dispatching BYU on Thursday night. And while Duke is ranked fourth in defensive efficiency and holds opponents to 30% shooting from beyond the arc, there is far more to ’Bama than just outside shooting.
“I’ll say this: If you want to take the three away from us, you can take the three away from us,” Oats said. “I’m going to say it’s harder to hold Cooper under his averages because there’s a way to take the three away from us. . . . [but] if you want to completely run us off the line, we’ll try to go score 70 or 75 points in the paint.
The Crimson Tide will want to stifle Flagg’s scoring and playmaking, but they know that Duke has plenty more weaponry with a roster of players who will go on to the NBA (five are regulars on mock draft boards).
“You’re not going to hold him down to 10 points — that’s just not happening,” Oats said of Flagg. “What you can’t have is him scoring 25 and getting eight, nine, 10 assists and [drawing] all these fouls. You’re going to have to decide what you want to do and [with] some of their guys, you’d better not help very far off because they can really shoot it.”
The University of Alabama Board of Trustees Compensation Committee approved contracts for 17 Alabama athletics coaches and staff members Friday. The approved contracts include 15 football assistants and staffers, headlined by first-year offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb.
Grubb was given a two-year contract that will pay him $1 million per year through Feb. 28, 2027. Grubb joined coach Kalen DeBoer’s staff this offseason after he held the same position with the Seattle Seahawks. Alabama Director of Athletics Greg Byrne pointed out Grubb’s recent position in the pros as a key point in working out the details of his contract at Alabama.
“He had an existing contract with the Seattle Seahawks that helped us with the structure of our compensation for him,” Byrne said. “And there are playcallers within the SEC that are in that range. So it was the market rate for us.
“From a salary standpoint, we have usually been very aggressive from a football salary standpoint, and that is something we have promised Coach DeBoer from a staff-stability standpoint in maintaining his group that he has.”
Other notable football contracts approved by the board Friday include General Manager Courtney Morgan, wide receivers coach JaMarcus Shephard and defensive line coach Freddie Roach. Other football staff members, including Director of Player Personnel Bob Welton and Director of Sports Performance David Ballou also received new contracts.
Along with the new football contracts, Alabama basketball assistant coach Preston Murphy was also given an extension that will keep him in Tuscaloosa through Dec. 31, 2028. Murphy will make $675,000 per year in his new deal. Murphy has been instrumental in Alabama’s presence on the recruiting trail, helping grow the Tide’s profile under coach Nate Oats.
Here is the full list of new coach contracts approved by the committee:
Chris Kapilovic — Offensive line coach: 2 years, $925,000 per year ending Feb. 28. 2027
Maurice Linguist – Defensive backs coach: 2 years, $975,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027
Chuck Morrell — Linebackers coach: 2 years, $600,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027
Jay Nunez — Special teams coordinator: 2-year contract ending Feb. 28, 2027. Nunez will make $375,000 in the first year and $400,000 in the second year
Freddie Roach — Defensive line coach: 2-year contract ending Feb. 28, 2027. Roach will make $1.2 million in the first year and $1.3 million in the second year.
Christian Robinson — Linebackers coach: 2 years, $700,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027
JaMarcus Shephard — Wide receivers coach: 2 years, $1.1 million per year ending Feb. 28, 2027
Bob Welton — Director of Player Personell: 2 years, $295,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027
Jeff Allen — Strength coach: 3 years, $525,000 per year ending Feb. 29, 2028
David Ballou — Director of sports performance: 2 years, $950,000 per year ending Dec. 31, 2027
Bryan Ellis — Tight ends coach: 2 years, $600,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027
Robert Gillespie — Running backs coach: 2 years, $850,000 per year ending Feb. 28, 2027.
Jason Jones — Defensive backs coach: 2-year contract ending Feb. 28, 2027. Jones will make $250,000 in the first year and $450,000 in the second year.
Ryan Grubb — Offensive coordinator: 2 years, $1 million per year ending Feb. 28, 2027.
Courtney Morgan — General Manager: 2-year contract ending Dec. 31, 2027. Morgan will make $825,000 in the first year and $875,000 in the second year.
Preston Murphy — Assistant basketball coach: 2 years, $675,000 per year ending April 30, 2027.
Rashinda Reed — volleyball coach: 3 years, $250,000 per year ending Dec. 31, 2028.
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