This article is concerned with the process of inscription of corporate language in Brazilian Labor movement. For that, it discusses its development in the field of public values and institutions, stressing the relationship between workers' health and public health policy. By historicizing such political phenomenon, the paper recovers the intellectual dissent of the 1930s, pointing out Oliveira Vianna's proximity to the social catholic paradigm as a privileged moment for its public legitimation. With this historical-analytical framework, the article's contribution consists in presenting arguments that destabilize interpretations that assume corporate pragmatism as an inexorable condition of modern labor movement.
corporatism; public interest; health policy; labor movement