Campbell Soup executive belittled ‘poor’ customers, spewed racist hate in secret recording
The explosive rant of a Campbell’s Soup Company vice president was secretly recorded – only for the employee who reported it to get fired.
A Campbell’s Soup Company vice president was secretly recorded criticising the food giant’s products, mocking “poor people” who buy them, calling his Indian co-workers “idiots” and admitting he sometimes showed up to work high – yet the employee who reported it says he was the one to get fired.
Robert Garza, a former cybersecurity analyst from Monroe, Michigan said he hit record on instinct when he sat down with Campbell’s Vice President and Chief Information Security Officer Martin Bally for what was supposed to be a routine salary meeting late last year, The New York Post reported.
Instead, he captured what he described as an explosive, hour-long tirade that left him feeling “pure disgust”.
Mr Garza began working at the company’s Camden, New Jersey headquarters in September 2024.
He said he trusted a gut feeling that “something wasn’t right with Martin” before the meeting in November of last year – and within minutes, Mr Bally allegedly started unloading.
MORE: 8 things you didn’t know you could be fired for
According to a lawsuit filed last Thursday in Wayne County Circuit Court, Mr Bally railed against the very products he oversaw.
“We have sh*t for f***ing poor people. Who buys our sh*t? I don’t buy Campbell’s products barely anymore,” Mr Bally said, according to the over 75-minute recording.
“It’s not healthy now that I know what the f***’s in it.”
At another point, Mr Bally dissed the ingredients in Campbell’s soups as “bioengineered meat – I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3D printer”.
The suit alleges he then tore into his Indian colleagues.
“F***ing Indians don’t know a f***ing thing,” he said.
“They couldn’t think for their f***ing selves.”
A Campbell’s spokesperson told The Post that Mr Bally is “temporarily on leave while we conduct an investigation”.
“If the comments were in fact made, they are unacceptable. They do not reflect our values and the culture of our company. We were not aware of the recording,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
“We are proud of the food we make, the people who make it and the high-quality ingredients we use. The comments heard on the recording about our food are not only inaccurate – they are patently absurd.”
Mr Garza told Local News 4 he was stunned.
“He has no filter. He thinks he’s a C-level executive at a Fortune 500 company and he can do whatever he wants because he’s an executive,” he said.
According to the filing, Mr Bally also disclosed he often came to work high from marijuana edibles – an admission Mr Garza said he also captured on the recording.
Mr Garza said he at first kept the audio to himself because he needed time to process what he heard. But weeks later, he decided he had to speak up.
He said that in January, he went to his manager JD Aupperle to report Mr Bally’s behaviour. Mr Garza claimed Mr Bally praised his work during the very same meeting in which the rant occurred and that he had no performance issues on his record.
Lawyer Zachary Runyan told Local 4 News the fallout was swift.
“(Garza) reached out to his supervisor and told the supervisor what Martin was saying, and then out of nowhere, my client was fired,” Mr Runyan said.
“He was really sticking up for other people.”
Mr Garza said he was terminated 20 days after speaking up – blindsided by an action he believes he was meant to silence him.
The lawsuit alleged he was fired on January 30 in retaliation for reporting discriminatory and harassing conduct.
The suit claims the company maintained a racially-hostile work environment and acted with intentional disregard for Mr Garza’s rights.
He said he had received no follow-up from human resources after raising the concerns, and that it had taken him 10 months to find another job. Mr Garza described Campbell’s handling of the situation as “simply terrible”.
“They have a motto: ‘We treat you like family here at Campbell’s – come work for us’,” Mr Garza said, adding: “That’s not the case.”
“This situation has been very hard on Robert. He thought Campbell’s would be thankful that he reported Martin’s behaviour, but instead he was abruptly fired. We look forward to obtaining Robert the justice he deserved,” Mr Runyan said in a statement to The Post.
This article was originally published by The New York Post and was reproduced with permission
More Coverage
Originally published as Campbell Soup executive belittled ‘poor’ customers, spewed racist hate in secret recording
