Inside Report (4)

Good labor relations are triumphing in West Germany -- even in a year of negative growth and pinched budgets. A nationwide metal workers strike was averted this week when south German unionists settled for a modest 4.9 to 5.3 percent wage increase. Now, a whole series of labor settlements coming up is expected to follow with the same approximate percentages.

West German inflation stands at 5.6 percent, which will mean a cut in real income for the metal workers.

Economic observers take the settlement as a sign that Germans c an adjust realistically to the slowdown of the "economic miracle" of the 1960s and early ' 70s.m