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Trade Union leaders from across the world are arriving in Dublin for the 2013 UNI Global Union World Executive, a year ahead of the World Congress in Cape Town.

UNI's Irish affiliates will host this year’s event, which begins in full on Tuesday and will take place at the CWU headquarters in the capital. Irish unions were invited to host to commemorate the centenary of the Dublin Lockout, the major industrial dispute which rocked the country in 1913.

UNI Global Union President Joe de Bruyn said, “We are delighted to be here in Dublin and to welcome the UNI global family at this pivotal moment in the organisation’s history, a year ahead of our Cape Town World Congress.

“We will hear how our unions are breaking through and using Including You in their work across our many sectors, and we will discuss the challenges that lie ahead.”

The Executive will hammer out the details for next year’s World Congress and will view draft papers around the Congress theme Including You/Ubuntu. Among the papers up for discussion will be “Including You to win union growth”, “Including You in taking back our economies” and “Including You in a new world of work.” These are three vital interlinking areas in which UNI will focus its attention in the run-up to Cape Town.

UNI will announce the host city for the 2018 World Congress this week. 2018 will see the Congress move to the UK in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Trade Unions Congress. The World Executive will also be offered updates on UNI’s many organising initiatives and global agreements as well as the UNI Organising Fund and the Bangladesh Accord.

On Monday, an afternoon session will take stock on where we stand five years on from the onset of the global financial crash. Speakers will include David Begg, General Secretary of the Irish Confederation of Trade Unions, John Evans, General Secretary of TUAC/OECD and Chief Economist of Global Unions, Larry Elliott, Chief Economics Correspondent at The Guardian, Ieke van den Burg, President of Finance Watch and Oliver Roethig, UNI Europa Regional Secretary.

Thousands of Dubliner’s have been commemorating the 1913 Dublin Lockout, in which an estimated 20,000 workers, led by Trade Union leader Jim Larkin, were involved. The lockout is often seen as the most significant dispute in Irish Trade Union history.

UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings said, "A hundred years since Jim Larkin led the workers of Dublin in calling for a fair deal and the right to organise, the struggle is yet to end.

"Now, in the shadow of Larkin's statue on O'Connell Street, we will plan how to take our great world family of unions forward and to secure a better deal for service sector workers in Ireland and worldwide."

In 1913, three hundreds employers in Dublin locked out their workers and employed replacement labour from Britain and elsewhere in Ireland. For seven months, the lock-out affected tens of thousands of Dublin's workers and their families. Central to the dispute was the workers' right to organise.