Australian stevedoring company Patrick says almost 28,000 shipping containers will be stuck on ships or the docks of three of the country's largest ports as a result of industrial action.

The Maritime Union Australia (MUA) has started partial work bans affecting Patrick container terminals in the cities of Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle.

The company and the union have failed to reach an agreement over pay and safety negotiations.

Patrick says up to 30 ships will be affected with some bypassing Australia and others slowing down their travel time to ride out the dispute.

At the Patrick container terminal at Port Botany in Sydney, where normally 800 trucks a day pass through the gates, 80 workers from the morning shift are staying in the smoko room.

In Brisbane, around 20 workers have spent their morning drinking tea and eyeing a ship they should have been unloading.

The union says it was prepared to do some limited work, but Patrick has told them if they do not work a full shift then they cannot work at all.

MUA national secretary Paddy Crumlin has described the strikes as a "deft touch".

"This is a light and deft touch, if that's what wharfies have," he said.

"We got the option to take much more strenuous and robust industrial action, but we have foregone that. We want an agreement."

Patrick director Paul Geraty says the strike action will bring the country's ports to a halt.

"We'll be unable to service our clients for seven days, so we won't see any container ships, imports or exports leaving across the wharfs," he said.

"So effectively we've nearly got 50 per cent of Australia's capacity on the waterfront locked up for seven days."

Patrick says millions of dollars in exports will be delayed.

The company issued a statement on Wednesday offering the union to enter into voluntary conciliation before the Fair Work Commission to help end the dispute.

But the union rejected the offer. The union says a deal can be reached without going be the tribunal, and says it could have taken tougher action.

"No, no we won't be taking it up," the union's deputy national secretary Mick Doleman said.

"We're into enterprise bargaining, there's no requirement for a third party to be involved and there hasn't been.

"There's been only one engagement in the area in the whole nine months that we've been negotiating. It is a cynical stunt on behalf of Patrick."

On Tuesday, it was reported that Patrick negotiator Mick O'Leary had been recorded on a mobile phone talking about locking union members out of the docks for a month, though a spokeswoman said they would only consider it as a last resort.

He has been accused of harking back to the bitter waterfront dispute of 1998.

Mr Crumlin says lock-out threats are ridiculous.

"Naive, amateurish, bully-boy tactics - those things don't really impress us," he said.

The union had also planned to strike at a Melbourne dock, but Patrick made an application to Fair Work Australia to stop that strike action going ahead.

A resources industry association says mining companies stand to lose tens of millions of dollars this week.

Minna Knight, from the Australian Mines and Metals Association, says the union is holding the country to ransom.

"It's going to make life very difficult for a whole range of companies," he said.

"We're obviously not here to speak on behalf of Patrick, but if our experience is anything to go by, it's going to be a very hard time for Australian importers and exporters."