Port issues.

Due to an ongoing labor dispute between The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and the Pacific Maritime Association, many of our shipping containers that were due to arrive over the last few months have been delayed. With little knowledge of when the dispute will be resolved, unfortunately we have been unable to give accurate ship dates for many of our products.

Some news articles released within the last few days state that a complete lockout of all 29 ports is just days away as current contracts set to expire. The public is being warned that the situation will continue to get worse before it gets better. 

This is part of an email I got today. You know the port issue is a problem when you haven't ordered anything from a company and they are sending out an email blast anyway.

I've been only minimumly paying attention to the port issue because it's been going on a long time now. I've even read that some companies had to send planes full of their stuff because they had products stuck in the port pipeline. That has got to make a company windmill mad. I wish they would fire those guys. Or throw them all into a volcano. I don't know about the other ports in California, but the one in Oakland will shut down for the craziest stuff.

It does make you wonder how Christmas employment was so strong when companies clearly have not been able to get their products to market for a couple of months. But, who am I to question authority?