In the 1970s, Velásquez began focusing on national and international companies in addition to local growers. "It was a big mistake to go after individual farmers," he said, "instead of focusing on the large corporations. We spent a lot of years doing that, and it was a mistake." From 1970 to 1983, Velasquez implemented a long-term strategy to build public support for the farmworkers, publicizing the discrimination, low wages, and often appalling working conditions they faced. In 1976, workers at a tomato cannery in Warren, Indiana, struck over the employer's tactic of overrecruiting workers in order to force down wages. The workers spontaneously barricaded themselves inside the cannery, refusing to allow the perishable crop inside until their grievances had been addressed. The workers asked FLOC to intervene. A federal district court issued an injunction requiring that the workers vacate the premises, but they refused. Although nearly all the workers were arrested, there was extensive publicity about the strike, the employer's overrcruitment tactic, the low wages and unsanitary conditions the workers suffered, and the use of the Immigration and Naturalization Service to intimidate workers and avoid paying them (through deportation proceedings). Velásquez later said the tomato cannery strike helped improve FLOC's negotiating and worker mobilization skills and provided a trial run for the union's dealings with large corporations.