TW has most of it in his post, but ALPA did not get rid of the whipsaw crews. There were a "golden" few who took the deal and claim jumped for left seats and the foreign hires who took seats from Atlas guys. The base came under ALPA when the US guys who went there became "Purchase based (HQ in NY), foreign assigned" to get around the legal issues.

Economically the base was never viable. The majority of the flying originated on the continent, so crews were flown directly to their aircraft without touching STN. There were a bunch of other shenanigans by management not worth the space to elaborate right now.

The previous management (98') came up with the idea of STN because they figured that opening a base there as a way to bust the union. It would allow them to transfer all the flying over there and if U.S. crews wanted to go there to keep their jobs, they could, but without a union since they would be considered "extraterritorial" and outside the reach of the RLA. They (the ones who came up with the idea) are long gone.

The agreement that was finally reached provided the company to open foreign bases, provided they first offered the jobs to U.S. based union crews. If an insufficient number took the bid, they could then hire contract pilots, but they would have to be put on the seniority list JUNIOR to the Atlas pilots, meaning if there was a furlough, the new guys would go first, regardless.

The base and foreign hires didn't go away until after ALPA was decerted and the pilots went to the Teamsters Airline Division. The Airline Division Director and Jim Hoffa were the ones who convinced the company that they needed to close the base and bring the crews home.