It is hereby declared to be the public policy of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania that it is necessary and essential in the public interest to facilitate the prompt, peaceful and just settlement of labor disputes between public utility employers engaged in furnishing electric, gas, water and steam heat services to the public and their employes which cause or threaten to cause an interruption in the supply of service necessary to the health, safety and well being of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and to that end to encourage the making and maintaining of agreements concerning wages, hours and other conditions of employment through collective bargaining between public utility employers and their employes, and to provide settlement procedures for labor disputes between public utility employers and their employes in cases where the collective bargaining process has reached an impasse and stalemate, and as a result thereof the parties are unable to effect such settlement, and which labor disputes are likely to cause interruption of the supply of a public utility service on which the community so affected is so dependent that severe hardship would be inflicted on a substantial number of persons by a cessation of such service.