Campbell’s Soup involved in lawsuit after alleged rant by vice president about product

CAMDEN, N.J. (WDIV-TV) – It’s a household staple in some holiday recipes, but now the company is in some hot water.

A former Campbell’s Soup employee is taking legal action against the food giant and is making some allegations about one of its top executives.

The former employee says he has an audio recording of a company vice president going on an hour-long tirade, where he attacked their products and their customers.

WDIV reports it sat down with the former employee, Robert Garza, who says he was fired after reporting the vice president’s tirade to company management.

The recording is allegedly of Campbell’s vice president and chief information security officer Martin Bally.

In the alleged recording, Bally states the company’s product is “for poor people.”

Bally, along with another supervisor, and Campbell’s Soup Company are named in a lawsuit filed Thursday.

The suit claims Bally made “racist remarks, admits to coming to work high and Garza fired for coming forward,” according to WDIV.

Garza says he usually worked remotely for Campbell’s headquarters based in Camden, New Jersey.

However, thinking he’d be discussing his salary with Bally, he says the recording was taken in-person at a restaurant.

Garza says he felt sick after the rant, deciding to go to his direct supervisor in January, keeping the recordings to himself.

Zachary Runyan, Garza’s attorney, says, “He had never had any disciplinary action, they had never written him up for work performance.”

Garza says no one at Campbell’s ever followed up, and it’s taken him 10 months to find a new job, calling the way the canned soup company handled it “simply terrible.”

Garza says, “They have a motto: ‘we treat you like family here at Campbell’s, come work for us. We treat our employees like family.’ That’s not the case.”

WDIV states it received a statement from Campbell’s, which includes the following:

“If accurate, the comments in the recording are unacceptable. They do not reflect our values and the culture of our company. We are actively investigating this matter.”

WDIV states it has also reached out to Bally directly.