It is the policy of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service:

(a) To facilitate and promote the settlement of labor-management disputes through collective bargaining by encouraging labor and management to resolve differences through their own resources.

(b) To encourage the States to provide facilities for fostering better labor-management relations and for resolving disputes.

(c) To proffer its services in labor-management disputes in any industry affecting commerce, except as to any matter which is subject to the provisions of the Railway Labor Act, as amended, either upon its own motion or upon the request of one or more of the parties to the dispute, whenever in its judgment such dispute threatens to cause a substantial interruption to commerce.

(d) To refrain from proffering its services:

(1) In labor-management disputes affecting intrastate commerce exclusively,

(2) In labor-management disputes having a minor effect on interstate commerce, if State or other conciliation services are available to the parties, or

(3) In a labor-management dispute when a substantial question of representation has been raised, or to continue to make its facilities available when a substantial question of representation is raised during the negotiations.

(e) To proffer its services in any labor-management dispute directly involving Government procurement contracts necessary to the national defense, or in disputes which imperil or threaten to imperil the national health or safety.

(f) To proffer its services to the parties in grievance disputes arising over the application or interpretation of an existing collective-bargaining agreement only as a last resort and in exceptional cases.