(a) The protection of the public health, safety, and welfare demands that the permanent members of any paid fire department of a municipality should not be accorded the right to strike or engage in any work stoppage or slowdown. This necessary prohibition, however, shall not prohibit such municipal employees from being represented by a labor organization of their choice and from bargaining collectively concerning wages, rates of pay, and other terms and conditions of employment.

(b) It is declared to be the public policy of this state to accord to the permanent members of any paid fire department of those municipalities which are covered by this chapter all of the privileges enumerated in subsection (a) of this Code section other than the right to strike or to engage in any work stoppage or slowdown. To provide for the exercise of these privileges, a method of mediation of disputes is established.

(c) The establishment of a method of mediation referred to in subsection (b) of this Code section shall not, however, in any way whatever, be deemed to be a recognition by the state of compulsory mediation or arbitration as a superior method of settling labor disputes between employees who possess the right to strike and their employers but rather shall be deemed to be a recognition solely of the necessity to provide some alternative mode of settling disputes where employees are, as a matter of public policy, denied the right to strike.