 He was a founder member of the Leeds Wholesale Clothing Operatives' Union in 1889, and was elected as its first general secretary.Employers in Leeds announced that any members of the union would be blacklisted, but Young avoided this by recording membership in secret.Although the "Factory Times" complained that it should not have avoided confrontation in this way, the tactic proved successful, and by 1893 the union had more than 1,000 members.