HARRISBURG — The union representing 3,500 employees of Pennsylvania’s state-owned liquor stores announced Tuesday they have ratified a new labor contract that runs through mid-2015, igniting a debate over the workers’ rights if ongoing efforts to privatize the liquor and wine trade are successful.

One union leader said the pact requires any private companies that take over all or any portion of liquor and wine sales to hire displaced state-store employees and to adhere to contract provisions covering salaries, health insurance and pension benefits.

The state must advise prospective operators that the contract is “binding in its entirety upon them for the duration of its term,” said Wendell W. Young IV, president of Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents more than 2,000 employees in eastern and central Pennsylvania.

“This, I think, really makes any discussion of privatization moot for several years,” Young, a vocal privatization foe, said in a telephone interview.

A spokesman for Gov. Tom Corbett, who supports closing the more than 600 state stores, argued that private businesses cannot be forced to honor a contract covering state employees.

“A collective bargaining agreement is not assignable,” said Dan Egan of the governor’s Office of Administration.