Protesting workers have refused to unload the first cargo ship to arrive at Hutchison Port operations since the company sacked 97 workers in Brisbane and Sydney via email and text message last week.

The ship Capitaine Tasman arrived at Port Botany in Sydney about 9:30am on Monday, but went back out to sea about an hour later still fully laden.

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Staff at the Port of Brisbane are blocking the road to Berth 11, where a ship was due to dock Monday morning but failed to arrive.

Picket lines were drawn at ports in both cities after Hutchison Ports Australia axed staff in messages about 11:30pm last Thursday, citing substantial financial losses.

Chanting demonstrators in Brisbane said the late night dismissals were disgraceful and un-Australian, and have vowed to continue the protest until the decision is reversed.

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At both sites, trucks turned around and left as soon as they saw the rallies, while protestors in Brisbane prevented cars from entering the area.

Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt was not impressed by the midnight sackings.

He visited the workers at the picket line on Monday afternoon.

"Losing your job is hard enough, but to get sacked via text message in the middle of the night is a really bitter pill to swallow," he said.

"The Palaszczuk Government will provide any assistance it can to the affected workers and their families."

The Fair Work Commission ordered striking workers back to work last Friday.

Federal Employment Minister Eric Abetz told the Senate that workers should abide by that decision to prevent further disruption.

Those who were made redundant got the message through texts and emails. ( Supplied: Brisbane port worker. )

"If you have an independent umpire, you have to accept their decisions, right, wrong or indifferent," he said.

The Maritime Union of Australia is fighting the sackings through Fair Work Australia and the courts.

Bob Carnegie from the Maritime Union Australia (MUA) said his members were ready for a fight over the "horrific treatment of a group of average Australian workers".

"We will win this dispute because our resolve is stronger, our belief is total, we are the wronged party," he said.

"Hutchison have all the wealth in the world, Lee Karshing the major shareholder of HPH, is worth $46 billion, he's the richest man in Asia.

"Well all of his billions of dollars can't defeat us."

The workers are defying a Fair Work Commission order, issued on Friday evening, to return to work.

But Mr Carnegie said they were acting on workplace safety concerns.

"The members who are rostered on have gone to work ... as a collective they have made the decision that when they walk into the terminal, that they would only work if they were offered a safe working environment, which it isn't," he said.

"The company has hired [foreign] security guards on 457 visas that they brought in late at night over the water, not through the terminal ... and they have no maritime industry security clearance cards.

Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt speaking at the Port of Brisbane. ( Facebook : Curtis Pitt )

"It's extraordinary ... these people are allowed by Hutchison and the Federal Government to just break all those rules and regulations for the idea that they can somehow break the back of the trade union organisation on the Australian docks.

"And to see that in this country the so-called security laws are being completely flouted by a major trans-national company is worrying in the extreme."

Mr Carnegie said workers would only perform cargo care so that farmers and companies did not lose perishable stock.

The MUA and Hutchison are expected to return to the Fair Work Commission later today.

The ABC has contacted Hutchison for comment.