This master’s thesis examines the working and social conditions of miners at the Huda Jama coal mine near Laško within the system of the Trbovlje Coal Mining Company between 1923 and 1939. Huda Jama is not treated as a representative model of Slovenian coal mining as a whole, but rather as a limited local unit of analysis that allows for a more detailed examination of labour relations and worker representation over an extended period of time. The local case is situated within a broader economic, trade-union, legal, and social context. The thesis is based on a microhistorically oriented analysis of primary sources. The principal archival basis is the personal fonds of Alojz Diacci, within which the intervention records of the local II. Group of the Miners’ Cooperative occupy a central place. These records reveal specific instances of mediation between workers, mine management, and other institutions. They are supplemented by records of the Laško Brown Coal Mine and the Trbovlje Coal Mining Company, as well as by newspapers representing different ideological orientations. The research shows that formally recognised rights did not necessarily entail their automatic implementation and that their enforcement often required the intervention of workers’ representatives. Institutional representation did not signify a retreat from open conflict but functioned alongside it as a parallel means of advancing workers’ interests.
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