all other work areas, and areas open to the public such as lobbies, cafeteria and coffee shop, corridors, elevators, gift shop, etc., there is to be no solicitation nor distribution of literature. "Solicitation or distribution of literature on Hospital property by non-employees is expressly prohibited at all times. "Consistent with our long-standing practices, the annual appeal campaigns of the United Fund and of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies for voluntary charitable gifts will continue to be carried out by the Hospital." Id., at 70-71. Upon a charge filed by the union, the Board issued a complaint and the matter was tried before an Administrative Law Judge. The Board affirmed the rulings, findings, and conclusions of the Administrative Law Judge that petitioner's issuance and maintenance of the rules violated § 8 (a)(1) and the disciplining of an employee for an infraction of them violated § 8 (a)(3). 223 N. L. R. B. 1193 (1976). The Administrative Law Judge found that there were few places in which employees' § 7 rights effectively could be exercised, that petitioner had not offered any convincing evidence that the rule was necessary to prevent disruptions in patient care, and that, on balance, the rule was an unjustified infringement of § 7 rights. See 223 N. L. R. B., at 1198. The Board issued an order, paragraph 1 of which broadly required petitioner to cease and desist from interfering with "concerted union activities" and "exercise of [employees'] rights guaranteed in Section 7 of the Act," and paragraph 2 (b) of which required petitioner to "[r]escind its written rule prohibiting distribution of union literature and union solicitation in its cafeteria 3 The charges leading to the complaint were filed by Massachusetts Hospital Workers' Union, Local 880, Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO. Opinion of the Court 437 U.S. and coffeeshop." 223 N. L. R. B., at 1199, as modified, id., at 1193. The Court of Appeals accepted as settled law that rules restricting employee solicitation during nonworking time, and distribution during nonworking time in nonworking areas are presumptively invalid in the absence of special circumstances to justify them, 554 F. 2d 477, 480 (1977), and held that, since "[i]n this case, the application of the employer's nosolicitation, no-distribution rules to the cafeteria and coffee shop banned concerted activities in non-working areas during non-working time... [t]he burden, therefore, was on the hospital to show that special circumstances justified its curtailment of protected activities in these two places." Ibid. After review of the record, the court held that "the Board did not err in finding that the hospital had not justified its nosolicitation, no-distribution rule as it related to the cafeteria and coffee shop." Id., at 481. The court refused to enforce paragraph 1 of the Board's order, however, on the ground that no proclivity to violate the Act had been shown to support that broad cease-and-desist order. It also enforced paragraph 2 (b) only after adding to the order the clarifying words "that part of" so that petitioner was required to "[r]escind that part of its written rule prohibiting distribution [of union literature and union solicitation in its cafeteria and coffeeshop]," id., at 482 (emphasis in original), to make clear that the validity of the rules as applied to areas outside the cafeteria and coffeeshop remained open. The Board has not sought review of the Court of Appeals' rulings in these respects. The narrow question for decision, therefore, is whether the Court of Appeals erred in enforcing the Board's order requiring petitioner to rescind the rules as applied to the hospital's eating Petitioner's application of the rules to other areas not devoted to immediate patient care has since been litigated before the Board in another case. Beth Israel Hospital, 228 N. L. R. B. 1495, 95 LRRM 1087 (1977). facilities. Because of a suggested conflict among Courts of Appeals as to the validity of restrictions upon solicitation and distribution in patient-access areas of the hospital, such as petitioner's cafeteria and coffeeshop, we granted certiorari." 434 U. S. 1033 (1978). We affirm. I Although petitioner employs approximately 2,200 regular employees, only a fraction of them have access to many of the areas in which solicitation is permitted. Solicitation and distribution are not permitted in all locker areas. Rather, of the total number of locker areas only six separate and scattered locker areas containing 613 lockers are accessible to all employees for these purposes. Moreover, most of these rooms are divided and restricted on the basis of sex, and in any event "The Court of Appeals in this case, and the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, Lutheran Hosp. v. NLRB, 564 F. 2d 208 (1977), cert. pending, No. 77-1289, have enforced Board orders protecting solicitation and distribution in cafeterias and coffeeshops. In Lutheran Hospital, the order enforced extended beyond cafeterias to all areas other than "immediate patient care areas." The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, St. John's Hospital & School of Nursing, Inc. v. NLRB, 557 F. 2d 1368 (1977), together with the Courts of Appeals for the District of Columbia and Sixth Circuits, have denied enforcement to similar Board orders applicable to cafeterias as well as to other patient-access areas. Baylor Univ. Medical Center v. NLRB, 188 U. S. App. D. C. 109, 578 F. 2d 351 (1978); NLRB v. Baptist Hospital, Inc., 576 F. 2d 107 (CA6 1978). 6 This number is exclusive of house staff, attending physicians, students, and employees of Harvard University who work at the hospital. App. 28. "There are four categories of locker rooms. The first, in which there are a total of 613 lockers, are areas in which any employee may engage in solicitation and distribution. The second, in which there are a total of 470 lockers, are areas in which, for security reasons, only the employees to whom the lockers have been assigned have access. The other two categories which comprise the remainder of the hospital's lockers are off limits to solicitation and distribution because they are located in working areas or in areas in which patients or the general public have access. 223 N. L. R. B. 1193, 1197 (1976); App. 127–134. Opinion of the Court 437 U.S. are not generally used even by petitioner to communicate messages to employees. The cafeteria, on the other hand, is a common gathering room for employees. A 3-day survey conducted by petitioner revealed that 77% of the cafeteria's patrons were employees while only 9% were visitors and 1.56% patients. The cafeteria is also equipped with vending machines used by employees for snacks during coffeebreaks and other nonworking time. Petitioner itself has recognized that the cafeteria is a natural gathering place for employees on nonworking time, for it has used and permitted use of the cafeteria for solicitation and distribution to employees for purposes other than union activity. For example, petitioner maintains an official bulletin board in the cafeteria for communicating certain messages to employees. On occasion it has set up special tables in or near the cafeteria entrance to aid solicitation of contributions for the United Way or United Fund charities, the Jewish Philanthropies Organization Drive, the Israel Emergency Fund, and to recruit members for the credit union. When petitioner embarked upon an intensive cost-reduction program, styled "Save a Buck a Day” or “BAD," it used the cafeteria to post banners and distribute informational literature touting the program to employees, and, significantly, generally did not use the locker rooms and restrooms for this purpose. In addition to these official uses, petitioner maintains an unofficial bulletin board in the cafeteria for the employees' use, a rack and small table which display commercial literature, such as travel brochures, and information of interest only to employees, such as carpool openings. “[T]here are relatively few places where employees can congregate or meet on hospital grounds or in the nearby vicinity for the purpose of discussing nonwork related matters other than in the cafeteria; secondly, the area in the neighbor • During the pendency of this litigation, the coffeeshop was dismantled, and the space added to the cafeteria. hood of the hospital is congested and provides no ready access to employees"; 223 N. L. R. B., at 1198 (opinion of Administrative Law Judge). Petitioner, moreover, has adopted the policy of refusing to make available to unions the names and addresses of employees unless ordered to do so by the Board. App. 33. Petitioner has also made antiunion statements in a newsletter distributed to employees with their paychecks at their work stations. On October 25, 1974, Ann Schunior, a medical technician in the Department of Medicine, was distributing the union newsletter As We See It by circulating from table to table. She approached only persons she thought were employees, and if not sure of their employee status, inquired whether they were, explaining that she was distributing literature for employees. Petitioner's general director witnessed this activity, advised Schunior that she was violating the hospital's nodistribution rule, and demanded that she cease the distribution. A written warning notice was issued to Schunior the same day advising that she had been in flagrant violation of the hospital's rules and that further violations would result in dismissal. 223 N. L. R. B., at 1195-1196. The publication As We See It was objectionable to petitioner because certain issues were said to contain remarks which disparaged the hospital's ability to provide adequate patient care, primarily because of understaffing. Id., at 1196. II We have long accepted the Board's view that the right of employees to self-organize and bargain collectively established by 7 of the NLRA, 29 U. S. C. § 157, necessarily encompasses the right effectively to communicate with one another regarding self-organization at the jobsite. Republic Aviation • We recently reiterated this principle in Central Hardware Co. v. NLRB, 407 U. S. 539 (1972): "[Section 7] organization rights are not viable in a vacuum; their |