ST. PAUL -- Gov. Jesse Ventura's administration won't try to renegotiate a contract with state workers, despite a threat the House will reject it, Employee Relations Commissioner Julien Carter said Wednesday.

The House voted 75-54 in favor of a resolution that objects to the contract because it provides benefits to same-sex partners of state workers.

The measure has no force of law. But House Speaker Steve Sviggum, a Kenyon Republican, said Ventura should consider it a warning the House will reject the contract and ought to start working to renegotiate the deal.

If the House follows through on its threat, state workers may strike again.

"We stand by these contracts,'' said Carter, who led the administration in negotiations to end a two-week strike by state workers last fall. "We believe we need to honor these agreements and we'll do our best to support these agreements.''

Workers are already getting benefits won in the contract. So far, 85 gay and lesbian workers have signed up for benefits for their partners.

But those benefits, along with wage increases and a new health plan agreed to in the contract, would disappear for everyone if the House either rejects the contract or fails to take a vote on them this session.

It would be the first time the Legislature has rejected a contract negotiated between state workers and a governor.

Rep. Karen Clark, DFL-Minneapolis, said it made her "heartsick'' that the House would seek to deny sick leave or bereavement leave for employees whose gay or lesbian partners have died. Clark, who is one of two openly gay members in the Legislature, said the unions had been pushing for years to have such a provision in their benefits.

"I don't know why you find it so hard to believe that union brothers and sisters respect all their members,'' Clark said during the two-hour floor debate on the subject.

Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, made an impassioned speech against the resolution, saying it was an affront to any union worker who had ever negotiated a contract in good faith. Beyond that, the resolution was mean-spirited and hateful, Rukavina said.

"I do know that God made all of us in his image,'' he said. "And I do know that after Sept. 11, I had hoped we had learned there is enough hate in this world. You don't have to have hate. There's 85 people that took advantage of this because they love each other and whether I agree with that or not is immaterial because they worked it into their union contract.''

The resolution was little more than political ploy by Republican leadership to out House members on their position on gay rights, said Rep. Tom Huntley, DFL-Duluth.

A vote against the resolution would be a vote for gay rights, he said.

Huntley opposed the resolution, as did Rep. Dale Swapinski, DFL-Duluth.

"It's a matter of honoring the collective bargaining agreement,'' Swapinski said. "But, even more so, it's a matter of human rights.''

House lawyers said it is unclear if employees would have any health insurance if the contract is rejected. Carter said he believes they would, although the exact package would have to be determined then.

House Republicans expressed frustration with negotiators, noting they voted 78-54 last year to block Ventura from offering the benefits in contract talks. The prohibition didn't become law because the DFL-controlled Senate wouldn't go along.

"A contract is a contract is a contract,'' said Jim Monroe, executive director of the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, the other union.