The football club, founded in 1936, was originally named Stakhanovets. This was a reference to the Stakhanovite movement, which in turn was named after Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov – a Soviet miner, who became a celebrity in 1935 as part of a campaign intended to increase worker productivity and to demonstrate the superiority of the socialist economic system.
According to Wikipedia, "the All–Union coal mining society of Stakhanovite had changed its name in July 1946 to Shakhtyor." Exactly when the football club changed its name is not clear.
I have it on the authority of Google Translate however that shakhtar does indeed mean 'miner'.
© Haydn Thompson 2018