Driving Instructors Strike Spreads to Other Sectors

A Histadrut-backed strike of driving instructors spread to other parts of the economy on Wednesday, as the national labor federation announced additional sanctions, The Jerusalem Post reported.

As of now, Israeli citizens will not be able to get goods released from customs at the seaports or get passports or ID cards renewed or issued.

Operations of the land crossings from Jordan will be slowed down, and the Economy Ministry, Health Ministry, and Israel Lands Authority will not be open to the public.

The work actions began three weeks ago to protest a government plan to privatize the notoriously inefficient driver’s license testing process.

The Histadrut rejected the plan as one-sided, and driving instructors took a walk.

Bernard Grossman, chairperson of the testers’ union, said at the time that if the issue was efficiency, “then why has the Ministry turned down our ideas for streamlining things. Even so, the Ministry released its tender. We will not stand by silently and watch as the Ministry destroys Israel’s safe driving culture,” allowing private groups to compete in order to serve students more cheaply, he said.

In a statement, the Ministry said that given the number of people seeking licenses, Israel had no choice but to expand the number of testers, “and by doing so the wait for a test date will be cut from three months to three days, as we expand our supervision of drivers and teachers using advanced technological methods.”