Just last week, geneticists Jeffrey Rosenfeld and Chris Mason wrote a commentary for the Washington Post that warned about the consequences of companies owning the rights to our gene sequences.
The dispute is threatening Christmas post and the Welsh Rugby Union has also warned that tickets for Sunday's Barbarians clash with South Africa may not arrive in time.
Last week's TUC conference supported an emergency motion from the CWU, which warned that hundreds of post offices would close and the universal postal service would end if the business was sold off.