The Republican-controlled House Commerce and Labor Committee voted 9-6 along party lines to recommend the bill after making more than a dozen substantive changes to the legislation that was approved by the Senate.

The committee’s changes make the measure even tougher on unions, making it more difficult for them to collect certain fees. But the committee also removed jail time as a possible penalty for workers who participate in strikes and made clear that public safety workers could negotiate over equipment.

A vote on the bill in the GOP-controlled House could come Wednesday. The Senate, also led by Republicans, passed the bill earlier this month on a 17-16 vote and would have to agree to any House changes before Gov. John Kasich could sign it into law.

Similar limits to collective bargaining have cropped up in statehouses across the country, most notably in Wisconsin, where the governor earlier this month signed a measure into law eliminating most of state workers’ collective bargaining rights.

The Ohio measure would apply to public workers across the state, such as police, firefighters, teachers and state employees. They could negotiate wages and certain work conditions but not health care, sick time or pension benefits. The measure would do away with automatic pay raises and would base future wage increases on merit.

Opponents have vowed a ballot repeal if the Ohio measure passes. State deadlines would require that Kasich sign the bill by April 6 in order for a referendum to be on the ballot this fall.

Democrats have offered no amendments. Instead, they delivered boxes containing more than 65,000 opponent signatures to the committee’s chairman.

The legislation was met with demonstrations and packed hearing rooms in the weeks before the Senate passed the measure. On Tuesday, several hundred protesters listened to the committee’s amendments over the loudspeakers positioned around the Statehouse before they headed outside to chants of "Kill the bill!"

The House committee returned to debate the changes Tuesday afternoon amid loud shouts from demonstrators gathered outside the hearing room. Their whistling and chanting at times made it difficult for lawmakers to hear each other’s questions and responses.

"These people have expressed their concern and their frustration with what the bill is going to do to their future," said state Rep. Kenny Yuko, a Democrat from Richmond Heights.

The spokesman for the new Republican governor has said Kasich was pleased with the version passed by the Senate but also was comfortable with the House changes.

The committee made changes that would prevent nonunion employees affected by contracts from paying fees to union organizations and would ban automatic deductions from employee paychecks that would go the unions’ political arm.

Lawmakers also revised the bill to include more details on who defines merit. For instance, merit pay for teachers would be based on a combination of guidelines set up by school districts and the state Department of Education.

State Rep. Dennis Murray, a Democrat from Sandusky, told the committee he didn’t know enough about the amendments to cast a vote because his party was just seeing them for the first time.

"This is a 435-page bill," Murray said. "I don’t know how one can intelligently form an opinion."

Jennifer Blair, 33, a music teacher from Westerville, said she is protesting a bill she believes will "destroy public education as we know it."

"It’s setting out to take away services our children have, take away services our teachers have, supplies in our classroom, teachers’ rights, class size, safety issues in the classroom for our special needs teachers," she said. "And it focuses on performance-based pay. As a music teacher, I can’t be judged that way. I don’t give a test to my students. I have no way to be based on performance-based pay in my classroom."

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Associated Press writer Julie Carr Smyth contributed to this report.