Graduate-student leaders and labor activists squared off against university administrators yesterday over a bill before the General Assembly to grant teaching assistants and contractual faculty the right to form unions.

The debate in a House of Delegates committee centered - as it has in other states - on the question of whether giving graduate-student employees the same collective bargaining rights as other state workers would undermine the educational relationship between professors and students.

Supporters of the bill said that Gov. Martin O'Malley has personally pledged to sign the legislation if it passes the General Assembly, but its sponsors in the legislature acknowledge a tough battle because of strong opposition from the University System of Maryland.

"It will definitely not sail through easily," said state Sen. Jamie Raskin, a Montgomery County Democrat who introduced the bill in the Senate, where it has not been heard. "The universities see them as students and not employees."

O'Malley has not taken a formal position on the bill "but has a record of supporting the freedom of all workers to have their voices heard," said spokeswoman Christine Hansen.

The bill is driven largely by graduate-student grievances at the university's flagship College Park campus. In a lengthy hearing yesterday, UM graduate students complained about low stipends, expensive housing and high teaching workloads in some departments. They said harsh working conditions contribute to a completion rate for doctorates of less than 50 percent.

Before the hearing, C.D. "Dan" Mote Jr., president of the College Park campus, said he hoped the legislature would give the university time to address the issues raised by students before opening the door to student unions.

"We have major initiatives on the graduate-student experience going on right now," Mote said. "I think we need to have the opportunity to put these initiatives into place before we make the step of moving graduate students from being students to ... being employees."

Graduate students said they already were employees.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I submit to you that the state comptroller signs my paychecks, I pay employee deductions, I am eligible for a state employee health plan, and I am expected to perform certain services in exchange for certain payment," said Devin Ellis, chairman of the University System of Maryland Student Council and a graduate student at College Park.

"If that isn't an employer-employee relationship, I don't know what is," he added.

Maryland law allows most state university employees to organize into unions but expressly prohibits graduate teaching assistants, research assistants and contractual faculty from collective bargaining. About 30 universities around the country recognize graduate student unions, including the flagship campuses of the New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan and California university systems.

After yesterday's hearing, Del. John L. Bohanan Jr., the St. Mary's County Democrat who chairs an education subcommittee, said passage of the legislation could be "difficult" this year.

"A strong case can be made that College Park is going to remedy much of what has brought the bill to us," he said.

gadi.dechter@baltsun.com