diff --git a/python-xattr.changes b/python-xattr.changes
index 474e2c5..2584e89 100644
--- a/python-xattr.changes
+++ b/python-xattr.changes
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+-------------------------------------------------------------------
+Fri Mar 22 21:45:07 UTC 2019 - Dirk Mueller <dmueller@suse.com>
+
+- fix tests run failing on older distributions due to incorrect locale
+
 -------------------------------------------------------------------
 Fri Mar  1 09:33:42 UTC 2019 - Tomáš Chvátal <tchvatal@suse.com>
 
diff --git a/python-xattr.spec b/python-xattr.spec
index e8e7044..29498c4 100644
--- a/python-xattr.spec
+++ b/python-xattr.spec
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ export CFLAGS="%{optflags}"
 %python_clone -a %{buildroot}%{_bindir}/xattr
 
 %check
+export LC_ALL=en_US.utf-8
 %python_exec -m unittest discover
 
 %post