diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 990a1a75e5c..f18a852268c 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -513,6 +513,8 @@
                     <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
                     <version>2.12.2</version>
                     <configuration>
+                        <!-- locale settings must be set on the command line before startup -->
+                        <argLine>-Duser.language=en -Duser.country=US</argLine>
                         <systemPropertyVariables>
                             <user.timezone>UTC</user.timezone>
                         </systemPropertyVariables>