Dragon Info
Related Articles

Dame una Chansa

Unmasking Dean Curtis and the Privitazation of Social Services

Kathleen Shormann and the Unquiet Death of Lance Helms

Nurses and Endangered Species-The Effects of Managed Care

Dragon Issues

Dragon child welfare
reports are now
available on line and
can be downloaded

Social Worker
Meltdown

Protecting Children,
Restoring Families,
It Takes Time and

Selected Articles

The SEIU Local 535 Dragon was produced by Richard Bermack and Ed Herzog from 1995 to 2002 and then by Richard Bermack 2002-2003. The online version and Dragon web site was produced by Richard Bermack. The Dragon was a publication of by Service Employees International Union Local 535 which represented at the time approximately 28,000 workers in California, including county and community social workers, welfare workers, health care professionals, mental health workers, recreation workers, criminal justice workers, and substitute teachers.

The Dragon has won numerous awards from the International Labor Communicators Association and the Western Labor Communicators Association. In 1999 Richard Bermack was awarded the Max Steinbock Award for the Humanitarian Spirit in Journalism for his story about a child welfare worker who saves the mother of a family who was about to be sent to prison for child abuse, Dame Una Chansa: Give me a Chance. The publication dealt with the critical issues in health care, and social services.

Other selected articles include:

Privatization:
Unmasking Dean Curtis and the Privitazation of Social Services An investigative article about how privatization of social services leads to the exploitation of the system at the expense of clients and the public. The artilce tells of how workers fought back.

Devleopmentail Disablities

Mental Health

Berkeley Mental Health Workers

Vallejo Crisis Center

Welfre Reform and Crisis