EAST WINDSOR -- Warning that "pigs will be charging down State Street" in Trenton if voters elect a Democratic governor after he leaves office, Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday urged New Jersey's business community to join his fight against public employee unions.

The Republican governor, who dished out blistering criticism against business leaders for not giving the GOP enough financial support in the last election, said they should also prepare to fight Democrats in the next statewide election for governor.

"Open up the checkbook and get in the fight," Christie said during a New Jersey Business and Industry Association Public Policy Forum.

"Force must meet force," he declared. "You're either going to fight this fight or you're going to cave."

Christie said if the business community doesn't fight the unions, it will "preside over (the state's) death so that 800,000 people could get everything their way."

There are 800,000 active and retired public workers in the state.

"Everything they want," he stressed, arguing that public workers would rather drive the state into fiscal ruin than give an inch.

"Man, it's time to get a spine," Christie said. "You can be just as powerful ... as the 800,000 or so public-sector workers we have in this state."

He added: "There's more of you, you make more money."

Christie, who is running for president and whose term as governor ends in a little over two years, said powerful public unions would likely bankroll the state's next gubernatorial election in 2017, which would result with a Democrat in the governor's mansion.

"The pigs will be charging down State Street," where the Statehouse is located, he said.

Christie acknowledged he may not be around until the end of his term. But he said he wouldn't stop fighting for the business community in the meantime.

"I'm happy to be the guy in front of the tank for the rest of the time I'm here," he said, adding, "Who's next? Who's going to be strong enough to stand in front of the tank by themselves ... or are you going to stand with them?"

Wendell Steinhauer, president of the New Jersey Education Association, responded Tuesday afternoon, saying "Gov. Christie's tired strategy of finger pointing, blame and scare tactics is a smokescreen, not a solution. He has had six years to fix the pension system, and his approach has failed. All he has done is make the funding problems worse."

Public workers, who as part of a 2011 pension law are contributing more from their paychecks into the pension system, are doing their part, Steinhauer said, adding it's Christie and "his legislative enablers" who have "shirked their responsibilities."

Reporter Samantha Marcus contributed to this report.

Matt Arco may be reached at marco@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MatthewArco or on Facebook. Follow NJ.com Politics on Facebook.