Who We Are
Lodge 555 was chartered on October 6, 1954 and has the largest geographical area in the whole Boilermaker Organization. The jurisdictional area covers Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Northwestern Ontario!
Lodge 555 members work in Construction and Maintenance of: Pulp Mills, Power Generation Plants, Petrol-Chemical Plants, Hydro-Dams, Mines and in fabrication shops.
The head office is in Winnipeg, Manitoba, with sub offices in Regina, Saskatchewan and Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Members of this Lodge hold various Qualifications such as: Boilermaker Red Seal, Welding Red Seal, Steel Fabrication Red Seal and numerous Welding Qualifications. Lodge 555 offers apprenticeships in Boilermaking and Welding leading up to Red Seal Certification.
All 3 offices are equipped with welding booths and well equipped training facilities which are used by the members to upgrade their skills and learn about new advancements in the Boilermaker field.
Our History
Lodge 555 was previously chartered in Las Vegas, Nevada and re-instated in 1954 in Winnipeg.
The work at the time, was a new smelter in Thompson, a steam plant in Winnipeg, McArthur Hydro-Dam, and oil refineries. The International recognized the need for the Boilermakers to have fair representation in this part of Canada.
The Brotherhood provided the financial assistance by hiring a Secretary-Treasurer with a union background to get the lodge on a secure financial footing.
With all the work at the time, the boomers came from other sister lodges sharing their high degree of skills and expertise which rubbed off on the new members into the Brotherhood. When the work slowed down, the members of Lodge 555 boomed out to the Lakehead area (Northwestern Ontario) and Saskatchewan, which later became the territory of Lodge 555.
In the early 1970’s, Lodge 555 launched an apprenticeship in Manitoba and worked towards trade designations in Saskatchewan. In 1976, Lodge 555 worked in partnership with Red River Community College as the source for training of the new generation of Boilermakers.