13 Facts About Alina Pienkowska

Alina Barbara Pienkowska was a Polish free trade union activist and a Senator for Gdansk.

Alina Pienkowska was involved in the creation of Solidarity, of which she was a member of its organizing committee.

Alina Pienkowska had been one of the founders of the underground Free Trade Unions of the Coast in the 1970s.

Alina Pienkowska wrote health-related articles for the underground journal, The Coastal Worker, mostly related to shipyard safety and rising accident rates.

All of the phone lines into the shipyard were cut except to the clinic, and as the nurse, Alina Pienkowska was instrumental in communicating to the outside world about the strike that ultimately spread to the Baltic coast and the giant wave of strikes in Poland.

Alina Pienkowska's first call was to Jacek Kuron of the Workers' Defence Committee in Warsaw.

Alina Pienkowska was outraged because of her close connection to the many workers outside the shipyard striking in solidarity with the shipyard workers.

Alina Pienkowska was then among the authors of the 21 demands of the Interfactory Strike Committee, 17 August 1980, which led to the Gdansk Agreement, of which she was a signatory.

Alina Pienkowska secretly married Bogdan Borusewicz during the period of martial law.

Alina Pienkowska spent five years in hiding, visiting her from time to time.

Alina Pienkowska worked as the shipyard nurse until 1991, when she was elected Senator for one term.

Alina Pienkowska died on 17 October 2002, aged 50, reportedly from cancer.

Andrzej Wajda said that Alina Pienkowska had been the model for a character in his film Man of Iron, based on events in the shipyard, who speaks her words:.