Should a postdoc advisor be on a journal article published out of the postdoc's PhD Thesis? My friend is in a new postdoc position. Her PhD thesis is unpublished. Her new adviser hired her with the mandate that she get it published (or a paper based upon it) in a good journal, with his help. He also expects to be last author on that paper (she is first), something at which my friend has balked, and is now fighting.

To me, this sounds very reasonable. He stated it upfront, before she was hired, and she accepted. He has certainly put in time helping her to rewrite it and address reviewers.

As a related question, the current version of the paper has no other coauthors. Her committee is not included. To me this sounds odd.

The field is Engineering, and this is happening at an R1 in the USA.

Thoughts?  Should her postdoc advisor be on a journal article published out of the postdoc's PhD Thesis? Should her committee?

Update: She and I spoke this weekend, and she agreed to let me post this.She has removed him as an author mid-'revise and resubmit'. He was gracious, and has not contested this with the journal. The journal rejected shortly after the resubmit; she will need to find a new outlet. She further negotiated that she be sole author on all future pubs. The situation is certainly to the detriment of their relationship, but I think she feels much more comfortable with the situation going forward. A second and third piece planned are now shelved: she does not have a the statistical skillset to reanalyze the data for these pieces. She now looks toward one day hiring her own postdoc to do so. Her role has been changed to one more focused on writing proposals for funding and data acquisition, toward future projects with publication.  She does not believe her postdoc was threatened by this change beyond the inherent risks of a mid-position role change.

I certainly learned a few things.
No, not unless he made a significant scholarly contribution.  Your friend's institution almost certainly has a co-authorship policy that prohibits this type of honorary co-authorship, urge her to look it up.

However, she should be aware that this might permanently harm her relationship with her post-doctoral adviser.