Bennet Hatfield was the last of six witnesses to appear for Patriot during this week’s hearing on the company’s motion to implement wage and benefit cuts under the bankruptcy code. The company said the proposed cuts totalled $150 million in annual savings and were essential for it to avoid liquidation.

"A reorganized Patriot is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. In a liquidation, Patriot is worth pennies on the dollar," Hatfield said, according to Reuters.

Hatfield confirmed that the company planned to end pension contributions and create a separate entity to fund healthcare. Patriot has offered the United Mine Workers Association a 35% stake in the company, but the union maintains that the changes and reductions are “nowhere near” fair.

“This is survive, or not survive,” Hatfield said at the hearing, according to St Louis Post Dispatch.

“If we don’t get the savings we’re targeting, I don’t see a future for this company.”

Patriot and the union have been at odds since the company filed for bankruptcy in July 2012, only able to come close to agreeing on Peabody’s role in the company’s down fall since its spin off from Peabody in 2007.

In his testimony, Hatfield acknowledged that Patriot is “uniquely challenged” because it was weighed down by legacy liabilities, according to St Louis Post Dispatch.

The spin-off rid Peabody of “approximately $600 million of retiree healthcare liabilities, along with hundreds of millions of dollars of other liabilities, including environmental reclamation obligations and black lung benefits”, Patriot said in earlier court papers.

However, in a statement on Monday, Peabody said Patriot was "highly successful" following the spin-off and had "significant assets" that helped its market value "quadruple in less than a year".

Hatfield joined Patriot in 2011 and took over as CEO last year after the company filed for Chapter 11 protection. The West Virginian native played on his family’s long history in the coal mining industry and said he grew up “with the UMWA Journal on my family coffee table.”

Hatfield said he believed the union would vote to ratify the changes put forth by Patriot if given a chance.

“I believe people will vote for retaining jobs because jobs are scarce,” he said.

The hearing is expected to run until Friday, after which Judge Kathy Surratt-States has 30 days to rule on Patriot's proposal.