A contract between the state, the four counties and the United Public Workers Unit 1 appears imminent.

Gov. Linda Lingle has signed a memorandum of agreement reached this week between the union and the four county mayors, said Marie Laderta, the state's chief labor negotiator.

The document still must be signed by Laderta and state Budget Director Georgina Kawamura before it can go to the Unit 1 membership for a ratification vote.

That should be done by "early next week," Laderta said yesterday. "It's being routed around right now and the intention is for us to sign it."

The contract, which runs through June 2011, calls for the roughly 9,000 blue-collar state and county employees to get unpaid furloughs amounting to an 8 percent or 9 percent pay cut.

State workers only would get furloughs through June 30 of this year. County workers would join them the following year.

The arrangement is similar to one reached with members of the Hawai'i Government Employees Association, which has 44,000 members state-wide.

UPW state director Dayton Nakanelua called the agreement "fair and reasonable."