Yvonne Washington sees her own image in the news pictures of workers laid off from scandalized and bankrupt companies.

The 46-year-old nursing assistant has seen what happens when corporations put the bottom line first. Overtime pay disappears. Rules get stricter. The atmosphere gets edgy, she said.

"When corporations started taking over nursing homes, it made me nervous," said Washington, a union shop steward at Harborside Healthcare-Harford Gardens. "The mom-and-pop days of nursing homes are over. It's all big business and the bottom line."

After a job past that included managing convenience stores and working as a shipfitter on battleships, she studied to become a nursing assistant. Now a decade into that career and married with a large family, she worries about how all of the recent scandals might affect the stock market and her 401(k) retirement plan.

"I'm not a corporate-enthused person," she said. "Maybe I've just lived too long and seen too much."