Basic Vegetable spokesperson Jay Jory, of the Fresno-based law firm Jory, Peterson, Watkins and Smith disagreed with Conle, saying that the plant had not being doing very well financially. Once workers rejected the concessions and struck the plant on July 7, company demands escalated. The company wanted vastly increased subcontracting rights, and the ability to grant promotions to whoever they wanted, rather than going by seniority. When the union filed unfair bargaining charges with the National Labor Relations Board, the last demand was withdrawn, but the rest still stand. At the beginning of the strike the company immediately began hiring strikebreakers, stashing them at motels in King City and nearby Soledad, and even brought in busloads from other rural towns.
Strikers claim that local jails have also been a source of recruits.
At the end of September, Basic Vegetable announced it had permanently replaced its striking workers. They could return to work, the company said, but only to about 100 temporary seasonal jobs. The rest, and best, of the jobs would now belong to replacement workers. Bringing in strikebreakers has been the source of violence and increased confrontations. On August 18, a car full of strikers followed a bus carrying strikebreakers back to the small town of Avenal, on the Westside of the Central Valley, over the mountains from King City.