The head of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees says it is a shame the contract dispute at a Calgary seniors home couldn't be resolved as quickly as one recently in Red Deer.

Workers at the Symphony Senior Living Aspen Ridge were on strike for just a week, and were back on the job Monday after reaching a deal with the employer on Friday.

But employees of Monterey Place, a seniors centre in northeast Calgary, have been off the job since June.

"We were able to come to the table and get that agreement, so as I said that's always the best conclusion of these kind of situations, and obviously we'd like to get to the same point at Monterey in Calgary as well," said Guy Smith, the president of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees.

Richard Brooks, whose 98-year-old mother lives in the Symphony Senior home in Red Deer, says even the short labour left his mother disoriented about the unfamiliar replacement staff.

"She's back being looked after by some of the caregivers that she had become quite accustomed to and who know her quirks and her needs and her profound deafness and all of the other things she's now dealing with," said Brooks.

But Brooks is faced with moving his mother because 49 beds funded by Alberta Health Services are being phased out by the end of the year.