diff --git a/tablib/packages/xlwt/ExcelFormulaLexer.py b/tablib/packages/xlwt/ExcelFormulaLexer.py
index 91d999f..5004d8e 100644
--- a/tablib/packages/xlwt/ExcelFormulaLexer.py
+++ b/tablib/packages/xlwt/ExcelFormulaLexer.py
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ import sys
 from antlr import EOF, CommonToken as Tok, TokenStream, TokenStreamException
 import struct
 import ExcelFormulaParser
-from re import compile as recompile, match, LOCALE, UNICODE, IGNORECASE, VERBOSE
+from re import compile as recompile, match, UNICODE, IGNORECASE, VERBOSE
 
 
 int_const_pattern = r"\d+\b"
@@ -51,7 +51,7 @@ pattern_type_tuples = (
 
 _re = recompile(
     '(' + ')|('.join([i[0] for i in pattern_type_tuples]) + ')',
-    VERBOSE+LOCALE+IGNORECASE)
+    VERBOSE+IGNORECASE)
 
 _toktype = [None] + [i[1] for i in pattern_type_tuples]
 # need dummy at start because re.MatchObject.lastindex counts from 1
diff --git a/tablib/packages/xlwt3/ExcelFormulaLexer.py b/tablib/packages/xlwt3/ExcelFormulaLexer.py
index 5dc546c..9b6103c 100644
--- a/tablib/packages/xlwt3/ExcelFormulaLexer.py
+++ b/tablib/packages/xlwt3/ExcelFormulaLexer.py
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@ import sys
 from .antlr import EOF, CommonToken as Tok, TokenStream, TokenStreamException
 import struct
 from . import ExcelFormulaParser
-from re import compile as recompile, match, LOCALE, UNICODE, IGNORECASE, VERBOSE
+from re import compile as recompile, match, UNICODE, IGNORECASE, VERBOSE
 
 
 int_const_pattern = r"\d+\b"
@@ -49,7 +49,7 @@ pattern_type_tuples = (
 
 _re = recompile(
     '(' + ')|('.join([i[0] for i in pattern_type_tuples]) + ')',
-    VERBOSE+LOCALE+IGNORECASE)
+    VERBOSE+IGNORECASE)
 
 _toktype = [None] + [i[1] for i in pattern_type_tuples]
 # need dummy at start because re.MatchObject.lastindex counts from 1