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On July 28 at the Polish Consulate in Vancouver, Polish Consul General Krzysztof Czapla presented Local 686B Jan Mendrek with the “Krzyzem Wolnosci I Solidarnosci” (Cross of Freedom and Solidarity) from the Republic of Poland.
Mendrek was honoured for his work and sacrifices made for the Solidarity Movement in Poland during the 1970s and 1980s.
His involvement began in 1978 when it was still an underground resistance movement advocating workers’ rights and social change. They had to work in secret because it was illegal to question or challenge the government.
A strike in September 1980 pushed the movement into a popular resistance. Martial Law was declared in December 1981 at which time Mendrek and thousands of others were arrested and imprisoned.
In July 1982 Mendrek was released and went back to activism. The secret police monitored his activities and arrested him again in September 1983. They forced him to choose between a five-year prison sentence or exile, at which point he emigrated to Canada.
Mendrek’s activism led him to unionize the Bullmoose Mine in Tumbler Ridge for the CEP. After his move to Westcoast Energy in Taylor, he became the president of Local 686B, a position he has held for almost 24 years.
Jan and his wife Christina live in Dawson Creek where they raised their two sons
