An executive at The Campbell’s Co. was allegedly caught trashing the business’ food as “sh*t for f**king poor people” in a tirade recorded by a former employee, who is now suing Campbell’s for retaliation after he tried to report it.
“If you look at our fucking pantry, we have shit for fucking poor people, right? We have shit that’s for poor people. Who buys our shit?” a voice can be heard saying in an audio recording obtained by HuffPost.
Martin Bally, whose LinkedIn states he is a vice president and chief information security officer at Campbell’s, made the remarks during a November meeting last year with then-employee Robert Garza, according to the lawsuit Garza filed this month.
“I don’t want to eat a fucking piece of chicken that came from a 3D printer,” Bally allegedly said about his company’s product, degrading the key ingredient of chicken noodle soup as “bioengineered meat.”
A company spokesperson said in a statement shared with HuffPost that “if the comments were in fact made, they are unacceptable” and do not reflect the business’ values and culture.
“We are proud of the food we make, the people who make it and the high-quality ingredients we use,” the statement read. “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.
“Our chicken meat comes from long-trusted, USDA approved U.S. suppliers and meets our high quality standards,” the statement continued, noting that the person allegedly heard in the recording “works in IT and has nothing to do with how we make our food.”
In the one-hour-and-15-minute recording, the voice identified as Bally’s can also be heard making racist comments about Indian workers.
“Fucking Indians don’t know a fucking thing,” Bally allegedly said, ranting about workplace cybersecurity. “Like they couldn’t think for their fucking selves.”
The lawsuit also alleges that Bally admitted to showing up to work under the influence of marijuana.
Garza, who worked under Bally as a cybersecurity analyst, claimed in the filing that he was “shocked” and “appalled” by the racist comments, and reported the incident in January to his manager, J.D. Aupperle, who is also named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
However, Aupperle did not encourage Garza to report the comments to human resources, the lawsuit claimed. Garza was instead terminated weeks later, and he believes that it was due to retaliation for reporting Bally’s behavior.
Court records did not list an attorney for Bally or Aupperle. The spokesperson for the company told HuffPost that Bally is temporarily on leave while the company conducts an investigation. HuffPost reached out for comment to email addresses connected to Bally.
“This situation has been very hard on Robert,” Garza and his attorney Zachary Runyan said in a joint statement shared with HuffPost. “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.”