By Bridget Halloran
EAST AURORA — The crew that plows Aurora’s roads has now gone ten months without a contract, and the gap between what they want and what the town is offering comes down, by their own math, to about a thousand dollars.
Members of the Aurora Highway Department and their supporters picketed outside the Aurora Municipal Center on Oakwood Avenue before the Oct. 26 Town Board meeting, the East Aurora Advertiser reported. The workers have been without a contract since Jan. 1. Talks began in November 2025.
The union first asked for 6% annual raises over a three-year deal, then came down to 5%, said Mike Inglefinger, the department’s deputy superintendent. He said the town has offered 4% plus a $500 signing bonus.
The town is not talking. Chuck Snyder, the supervisor, is handling the negotiations with Deputy Supervisor Joseph McCann.
“I have been advised by counsel that we are still in negotiations with the union and at this time there is no comment,” Snyder told the Advertiser.
A raise versus a bonus
Inglefinger put the department’s payroll at roughly $600,000 a year. By his estimate, each percentage point of raise costs the town about $6,000, while $500 bonuses for 10 workers come to about $5,000.
The difference, the workers argue, is that a bonus is taxed and then gone, while a raise stays in the base pay.
“We don’t want a ‘go nowhere’ bonus,” Inglefinger said. “Why are we arguing about $1,000?”
That framing is true for the first year. It grows after that. Using the department’s own payroll estimate, and assuming the town’s 4% would also repeat each year of a three-year deal, a Chronicle calculation shows that 5% annual raises would cost about $33,000 more over the contract than the town’s offer plus the bonuses, and by the third year the annual gap would be close to $20,000. That is still a small slice of a town budget, but it is more than a thousand dollars.
Inglefinger said the two sides had reached tentative agreements on other parts of the contract before wages became the sticking point. He noted that workers took 2% raises during the COVID-19 pandemic, while inflation climbed.
“At a certain point, you have to ask for more,” he said.
The health insurance squeeze
The workers say their real problem is insurance. Some reported paying about $1,000 to $1,200 a month toward premiums, with contributions rising about $350 to $400 a year. Mike Evans, a highway worker, said he earned about $74,000 last year and paid about $12,000 for health coverage.
Aurora covers between 62% and 78% of employee insurance costs, depending on the plan, the Advertiser reported. Inglefinger said the town picks the plan.
Highway worker Sean Chamberlain described how that works in practice.
“The catch is, they pay a fixed amount,” Chamberlain said. “The variability is always on the employee.”
Neighboring towns do it differently, according to information officials there provided to the Advertiser. Brian Nolan of the Town of Marilla said Marilla covers 90% for union highway workers and full-time office staff. Wayne Clark of the Town of Elma said employees there with more than five years of service pay 10%. In Wales, all four town employees pay 10%, though the town’s insurance costs are rising 8.9% for 2027.
Required to live in a $455,000 market
Highway employees must live in East Aurora, Aurora or West Falls, Inglefinger said. The median price for single-family homes and condos in the 14052 and 14170 ZIP codes is $455,000, and the mean is $494,370, according to REIS MLS figures cited by the Advertiser.
Nick Inglefinger, another highway worker, said he could only afford to buy locally because he found a foreclosure.
“It’s extremely hard to find houses,” he said.
He added that employees have been leaving because of the financial pressure. “It’s hard for me to even work on my home,” he said.
Public employees in New York can picket but cannot legally strike, and Mike Inglefinger said the employees feel as though they are being held hostage.
“We can’t move and we have to have health insurance,” he said. “What else are we supposed to do?”
Inside the 2027 budget
The town’s proposed 2027 budget gives every employee and elected official a 4% raise, the same number on the table for the highway crew. The supervisor’s salary would be $49,952, each of the four Town Board members would earn $15,600, and the highway superintendent would make $81,821, plus five stipends for extra duties.
Snow removal materials rise $95,000, to $270,000, which Highway Superintendent David Gunner has attributed to higher salt prices. Materials for general repairs drop $70,000.
No one spoke during the Oct. 26 public hearing on the budget. Later, Mike Inglefinger read a statement urging the board to reach a fair agreement, with about two dozen union members in the audience. Snyder replied only that the board would not negotiate the contract in the media. The board then went into executive session on the bargaining agreement and took no action.
Open questions remain: what the town’s counteroffer on insurance looks like, whether the residency rule is on the table, and when the two sides next meet. The Chronicle is seeking answers from Snyder and McCann and will update this story with any response.
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