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The state's largest public employee union would accept a wage freeze and unpaid furlough days to help reduce spending under a tentative deal, Gov. Jon Corzine said yesterday.

Corzine called the agreement with the Communications Workers of America "very important for our budget to make sure that we get something that is a very substantial giveback." He said negotiations are continuing with other unions along with the CWA.

With his Republican opponents quick to criticize the accord -- and link it to the politics of Corzine's re-election campaign -- the governor and the union defended it as a compromise amid a recession-ravaged state budget.

"There is a tentative agreement on wage givebacks and furloughs that has yet more details to be ironed out, and that has to be appropriately negotiated with other unions," Corzine said yesterday following a news conference on school construction in Newark. "I expect there will be an agreement on the terms that are negotiated at the collective bargaining table, not just with CWA but with all of the various parties that are involved."

Corzine did not provide details on the terms of the deal, but senior Democratic officials told The Star-Ledger Tuesday the pact would include 10 furlough days in the budget year starting July 1, along with a wage freeze and some "bankable" paid personal days that workers could take in the future.

Union officials issued a statement yesterday, saying that negotiations "have created the framework for an agreement that will deliver significant savings to the state and provide job protections to our members."

"But we are still working on language, the document is not finalized, and the characterization of the agreement in the press is incomplete," the statement from CWA District One said.

Representatives of other unions that represent state workers, including the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, could not be reached for comment on the tentative deal yesterday.

Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee chair Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) said the tentative agreement, if approved by other unions, would lead to at least $300 million in savings for the $28.6 billion budget proposed for the new fiscal year.

The deal would remove "a major obstacle in passing a budget," she said.

"It's not even debatable that this is historic -- that we opened a previously negotiated contract and achieved right-on-the-nose budget savings without people losing their jobs," Buono said.

Corzine imposed two furlough days before the current budget year ends June 30 and was seeking 12 more days in the new budget.

Union members have protested the furloughs and criticized the governor. The CWA planned to protest outside Corzine's re-election kickoff event in West Orange on Tuesday night, but later called it off.

The Democratic officials, who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the negotiations, previously said the specter of a union protest raised concerns for the White House because Vice President Joe Biden was on hand to praise Corzine.

Republicans said the decision not to force the pro-labor Biden to cross a picket line cost New Jerseyans money.

"It was a taxpayer-funded political event because his giveaways to the CWA -- in order to have the vice president not have to worry about crossing a picket line -- is typical of the timidity of Jon Corzine," said Chris Christie, Corzine's Republican opponent in the fall election.

Corzine called reports of Biden's concerns about a picket line "speculative" and stressed that the vice president did not alter the terms of the accord with the union.

"Not one single I or T was dotted or crossed differently with regard to the direction that we're taking," said Corzine, who has spent months pushing for a wage freeze-furlough combination as an alternative to more than 7,000 layoffs. He said the urgency of resolving a deal was accelerated because "layoff notices were actually posted last Friday."

The CWA statement also swiped at Christie, saying his "inaccurate and uninformed speculation about yesterday's events betrays a troubling disregard for the facts."


Statehouse Bureau reporter John Reitmeyer contributed to this report.