Hartford - The concessions agreement between state employee unions and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy was dealt a string of setbacks Thursday when three AFSCME locals voted to not ratify the deal, raising fresh concerns that it may not pass.

"We will not be bullied by Governor Malloy," said correction officer Walter Edwards II of East Lyme, a member of Council 4 AFSCME Local 1565. He joined colleagues in voting down the agreement reached last month between the governor's administration and leaders of the 15 state employee unions.

AFSCME Local 387, another correction officers' local, also voted no. Together they comprise more than two-thirds of the Corrections Bargaining Unit, which itself is part of the AFSCME Council 4 union.

AFSCME Local 749, which represents judicial employees and criminal justice workers and is its own bargaining unit, was the third local to have voted down the agreement by day's end Thursday.

The labor savings and concessions agreement can still gain the votes needed for ratification, but the margin of its success or defeat is now more likely to be close. At least five bargaining units have voted to ratify. The deadline is June 24, a week from today.

The agreement is projected to save state government $1.6 billion over two years. The governor is banking on its ratification to balance the state's new biennial budget that begins July 1. Malloy has said that if unions, which represent the 45,000 state workers, vote no and the deal falls through, the result will be 7,500 layoffs.

There are two main parts to the agreement: benefits and wages. The health care and pension benefits portion requires ratification votes by 14 of the 15 state unions, in addition to a successful "weighted voted." The weighted vote is based on the size of a union's membership, and at least 80 percent of the weighted vote must be for the agreement.

The unions are made up of 34 bargaining units, which must take separate votes on the wage portion. Units that vote down the wage agreement would not receive the four years of job security or eventual salary increases in the deal, even if the benefits portion passes for everyone.

"We remain hopeful that the agreement will be ratified," the governor's spokeswoman, Colleen Flanagan, said Thursday.

The correction officers' Local 1565 voted 2-1 Wednesday to reject both the wage and benefits portions of the agreement. The tallies, 1,274-540 on the benefits portion and 1,225-600 on the wage part, were finalized Thursday at the local's headquarters in Middletown.

The local represents workers at state facilities, including the Corrigan-Radgowski Correctional Center and York Correctional Institution.

"I really thought it was going to be closer with our local. It just didn't turn out that way," Greg Rubino, the local's treasurer, said Thursday.

In 2009, correction officers rejected a wage concessions package offered under former Gov. M. Jodi Rell. Rubino said his members are aware of Malloy's warnings of future layoffs if this agreement collapses, but there are mixed emotions about it.

"We don't want to be laid off and we don't want prisons to close - but we don't want to be threatened," he said.

Edwards, a correctional treatment officer at York, said he and other Local 1565 members had misgivings about the so-called value-based health and dental program in the concessions agreement.

The plan requires workers to get a minimum number of checkups and tests or pay higher health care costs, with a goal of avoiding costly medical problems in the future.

Edwards said those dictates were very unpopular with the rank-and-file. He called the plan "Malloycare," an allusion to the "Obamacare" tag used by critics of the national health care law.

"It's the most ridiculous medical coverage I have ever seen in my life," said Edwards, a professional bodybuilder, who said he plans to retire soon from state employment after 20 years of service.

Lisamarie Fontano, president of correction officers' Local 387, said her members voted down the benefits portion of the deal Thursday by a 417-91 vote, and the wage portion 386-120.

Fontano said her members had too many unanswered questions about the health care plan to support it.

"I think if we were getting answers, we may have seen a different vote," she said.

AFSCME Local 391, the third correction officers' local, is scheduled to vote next week.

j.reindl@theday.com