MONROE, Mich. – Campbell Soup said the comments made by a high-level company executive about their product are “patently absurd” after a secret recording from a former employee who spoke to Local 4 went viral this week.
Last week, Local 4 spoke to Robert Garza, a former Campbell’s employee who lives in Monroe and said he was fired for complaining about Vice President Martin Bally.
Garza said he secretly recorded Bally during an hour-long rant, during which Bally allegedly said Campbell’s soup is “s--t for f---ing poor people” and slammed its “bioengineered meat” and “chicken from a 3-D printer.”
Since Local 4’s story aired, Bally has been placed on leave during an internal investigation.
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.
We use 100% real chicken in our soups. The chicken meat comes from long-trusted, USDA-approved U.S. suppliers and meets our high quality standards. All of our soups are made with No Antibiotics Ever chicken meat. Any claims to the contrary are completely false.
Campbell Soup Company
“He has no filter,” Garza said of Bally. “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.”
Garza said he recorded Bally because he trusted his “instinct that something wasn’t right with Martin,” when he went to meet with him to discuss his salary. Instead, he said he sat at a restaurant and listened to an explosive, hour-long tirade. He recorded all of it.
“We have s--t for f---ing poor people,” part of the recording said. “Who buys our s--t? I don’t buy Campbell’s products barely anymore. It’s not healthy now that I know what the f---‘s in it. Bioengineered meat -- I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3-D printer.”
Garza is now suing the company -- alleging racist remarks, admissions of drug use at work and retaliation after he tried to report it. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in Wayne County Circuit Court and names Campbell Soup Company, vice president and chief information security officer Martin Bally, and supervisor J.D. Aupperle as defendants.
Garza told Local 4 he began working remotely as a security analyst in September 2024 for the company’s Camden, New Jersey headquarters.
The recording lasted longer than an hour and 15 minutes and included what Garza said was a “disgusting” rant about his coworkers.
“F---ing Indians don’t know a f---ing thing,” the recording said. “Like they couldn’t think for their f---ing selves,” it said in part.
Garza said he felt sick, “pure disgust,” after the meeting, and again after hearing the rant.
Garza also said Bally admitted he often came to work high from marijuana edibles -- another claim included in the filing.
Garza kept the recordings to himself at first. In January 2025, he said went to his direct supervisor, Aupperle, to report what he’d heard.
Garza’s attorney, Zachary Runyan, said Garza was blindsided 20 days later.
“He reached out to his supervisor and told the supervisor what Martin was saying, and then out of nowhere, my client was fired,” Runyan said. “He was really sticking up for other people. He went to his boss and said, ‘Martin is saying this about Indian coworkers we have, he’s saying this about people who buy our food -- who keep our company open, and I don’t think that should be allowed.’ And the response to Robert sticking up for other people is he gets fired, which is ridiculous.”
Garza said the termination was shocking to understand -- especially because he said Bally had praised his performance during that same meeting.
“He had never had any disciplinary action, they had never written him up for work performance,” Runyan said.
The lawsuit claims Garza was fired Jan. 30, 2025, in retaliation for raising concerns about Bally’s behavior, and accuses the company of maintaining a racially hostile work environment.
Garza said he received no follow-up from Human Resources or Campbell’s. He said it took him 10 months to find another job -- and he calls the way the company handled everything “simply terrible.”
“They have a motto: ‘We treat you like family here at Campbell‘s -- come work for us,’” Garza said. “‘We treat our employees like family.’ That’s not the case.”