The leading founders were Arthur Evans, William N. Pitts and Joseph Young, and they hoped to create a national industrial union.
[1] The union established its office in Leeds, and by the end of 1894 had also absorbed small unions based in Glossop, Hebden Bridge, Manchester, Nantwich and Wigan.
Membership was only 506, but in 1895 Pitts moved to become treasurer, with Young becoming general secretary, and the union began a steady growth, membership reaching 1,400 in 1900, and 3,337 in 1910.
It continued to rise rapidly, and by the start of World War I its membership was nearly equal to that of the Amalgamated Society of Tailors and Tailoresses (AST&T), the leading union in the industry.
It proposed a merger, but the AST&T rejected this, fearing it would be dominated by the more radical AUCO.