Amid a flurry of labor activism at Harvard and across the country, the Undergraduate Council voted overwhelmingly last night to recommend that Harvard withdraw from the Fair Labor Association (FLA) and join the Workers Rights Consortium (WRC).

Both organizations are designed to monitor overseas sweatshops, but members of the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM), the sponsors of the bill, said the FLA is too tied to corporate interests to be effective.

Over the past week, students have staged a series of demonstrations across the country in opposition to the FLA. Protesters at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin took over administrative buildings, and PSLM briefly occupied Mass Hall on Thursday to protest the organization.

"Our membership in the FLA legitimates an illegitimate organization," said PSLM member Benjamin L. McKean '02.

But University Attorney Allan A. Ryan Jr., the administration's chief negotiator on sweatshops, said the vote -43 to nine in favor of the bill--will have little immediate effect on University policy.

He questioned the legitimacy of the vote, since a representative of neither the FLA nor the administration was present.

"The Undergraduate Council had only one side of the story presented," Ryan said. "I respect what the [council] does, but I don't think it will result in any change of policy overnight."

Still, McKean said he hoped the vote would demonstrate the depth of students' concerns.