Plastique,
You're right on the button!!
As an outsider in their environment, whoever 'they' may be, you play by their rules. If you don't want the job, there is somebody who does. End of story.
I don't agree that it should be so, and I believe in union representation, but they have the $200M+ aeroplanes, not the employees.
I recall a friend back in 89 saying to the AFAP 'You buy me an A320 to fly, and you have me forever.' Different circumstances from the dispute in HK, but if anything, the HK pilots are in a worse position because they are foreigners in somebody else's country.