A group of just 600 clerical workers with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union on Wednesday signed a new contract with the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. But before that agreement was reached, the ILWU inflicted an eight-day strike that cost the California economy $1 billion a day and took paychecks away from 1.2 million other Californians.

“Anyone connected with the shipping chain is not drawing a paycheck today, because of the actions of some of the highest-paid clerical workers in America,” Steve Getzug, a spokesman for the Harbor Employers Association, told the Los Angeles Times.