In his remarks during the ceremony, City Hall official Piotr Kryszewski described Walentynowicz as "one those of heroic women and men thanks to whom we can live today in a free and democratic Poland."
Kryszewski said Walentynowicz was a unique person ”not only because she fought for the establishment of free trade unions, and not only because it was in her defence that the shipyard workers organised the biggest strike in Polish history" in August 1980.
"She was an extraordinary person because her dream of freedom was so profound that she did not fear repression, interrogations, police searches and internment," he continued, adding that "the common good always took priority over her own interests.”
Born in 1929, Walentynowicz was one of the key figures in Poland's Solidarity freedom movement.
In retaliation for her activism and militant opposition to the management, she was fired from her job as a crane operator at the Gdańsk Shipyard.
The historic strike at the shipyard in August 1980 started with a demand for her reinstatement.
Walentynowicz died in the 2010 crash of the Polish presidential plane in western Russia.
In 2020, Time magazine included her on the list of the most influential women of the past century.
Her honours included the Order of the White Eagle, the highest Polish state distinction.
(mk/gs)
