CWA is headquartered in Washington, DC, and affiliated with the AFL–CIO, the Strategic Organizing Center,[3] the Canadian Labour Congress, and UNI Global Union.

After AT&T installed company-controlled Employees' Committees, the Telephone Operators Department eventually disbanded.

After losing a strike with AT&T in 1947, the federation led by Joseph A. Beirne,[5] reorganized as CWA, a truly national union, which affiliated with the Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1949.

In 2020 CWA launched the Campaign to Organize Digital Employees (CODE-CWA) initiative to unionize tech, video game, and digital workers which has led to CWA becoming a major union for US and Canada tech worker organizing,[7][8][2] including organizing all non-management workers at the Hawaii digital wireless carrier Mobi in 2022.

CWA contracts also cover some non-members, known as agency fee payers, which number comparatively about 7% of the size of the union's membership.