A former employee accused a Campbell’s Soup vice president of claiming the company’s products were for “poor people” and making racist remarks about Indian employees.
On Nov. 20, 2025, Robert Garza of Monroe County, Michigan, filed a lawsuit against the Campbell’s Soup Company, Campbell’s executive Martin Bally and Campbell’s Director of Cybersecurity Operations J.D. Aupperle.
Garza said he was hired by Campbell’s — which is based in Camden, New Jersey — in September 2024 as a Cyber Security Analyst. Garza claims he had a meeting with Martin Bally – Campbell’s chief information security officer and a company vice president — in November 2024 to discuss his salary.
Garza accused Bally of making several offensive comments during the meeting, including that Campbell’s was highly processed food for “poor people.” The lawsuit also accused Bally of making racist comments about Indian employees at the company, calling them “idiots” and stating that he disliked working with them.
Garza shared audio of the meeting he claimed came from Bally with NBC10’s Detroit affiliate Local 4 (WDIV).
In the lawsuit, Garza said he reported the alleged comments to Aupperle, his manager at the company. He also said he told Aupperle on Jan. 10 that he wanted to report Bally’s alleged comments to the company’s human resources department.
Garza’s lawsuit claims Aupperle did not encourage him to report the comments to H.R., and accuses him of failing to give him any direction on how to proceed. Garza said he was then abruptly fired from his job on Jan. 30, despite “excelling in his role.”
The lawsuit accuses Aupperle and Bally of firing Garza in retaliation for reporting the alleged comments and claims the company maintained a racially hostile work environment. The lawsuit also claims Garza has suffered mental, emotional and financial damage since his firing.
“This situation has been very hard on Robert,” Garza’s attorney wrote in a statement to NBC News. “He thought Campbell’s would be thankful that he reported Martin’s behavior, but instead he was abruptly fired. We look forward to obtaining justice for Robert.”
In a statement in response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson for the Campbell’s Company said that Bally was placed on temporary leave while it was investigating the allegations.
“If the comments were in fact made, they are unacceptable. They do not reflect our values and the culture of our company. Mr. Bally is temporarily on leave while we conduct an investigation.
We are proud of the food we make, the people who make it and the high-quality ingredients we use. We know that millions of people use Campbell’s products, and we’re honored by the trust they put in us. The comments made about our food are completely inaccurate and 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.
I also want to emphasize that the person alleged to be speaking on the recording works in IT and has nothing to do with how we make our food.“
This story uses functionality that may not work in our app. Click here to open the story in your web browser.
Want more insights? Join Grow With Caliber - our career elevating newsletter and get our take on the future of work delivered weekly.
