Katz calls for privatizing driving tests as Histadrut blocks them

Transportation Minister Israel Katz called for privatizing driving tests on Monday, after the Histadrut Labor federation announced it would cancel testing over a labor dispute.As of Tuesday, students needing a test to get or convert their licenses will be forced to wait until the union and the Transportation Department work out their differences.Katz lambasted the union’s action, instructing the ministry’s director-general to draw plans for privatizing the services.“Enough. The driving instructors’ behavior is tiresome,” Katz wrote on his Facebook page. “The ministry has done everything to come toward them.”A private market with competition would eliminate bureaucracy and waiting times, he said.The unions complained that the ministry has not made efforts to continue negotiations as promised at an instructors’ protest accompanying last week’s suspension of driving tests.“The futile attempts at dialogue with the Transportation Ministry is an expression of their approach, whose main goal is to weaken organized labor in Israel,” said Ariel Yaakovy, the Histadrut’s chairman of state workers.“We regret that citizens have become prisoners of the Transportation Ministry’s foot-dragging and hope their leaders will see this as a final wake-up call,” he added.