diff --git a/swift/common/utils.py b/swift/common/utils.py
index a008a344eb..4dacae24fb 100644
--- a/swift/common/utils.py
+++ b/swift/common/utils.py
@@ -696,16 +696,25 @@ def normalize_timestamp(timestamp):
     return Timestamp(timestamp).normal
 
 
+EPOCH = datetime.datetime(1970, 1, 1)
+
+
 def last_modified_date_to_timestamp(last_modified_date_str):
     """
     Convert a last modified date (like you'd get from a container listing,
     e.g. 2014-02-28T23:22:36.698390) to a float.
     """
-    return Timestamp(
-        datetime.datetime.strptime(
-            last_modified_date_str, '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f'
-        ).strftime('%s.%f')
-    )
+    start = datetime.datetime.strptime(last_modified_date_str,
+                                       '%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%S.%f')
+    delta = start - EPOCH
+    # TODO(sam): after we no longer support py2.6, this expression can
+    # simplify to Timestamp(delta.total_seconds()).
+    #
+    # This calculation is based on Python 2.7's Modules/datetimemodule.c,
+    # function delta_to_microseconds(), but written in Python.
+    return Timestamp(delta.days * 86400 +
+                     delta.seconds +
+                     delta.microseconds / 1000000.0)
 
 
 def normalize_delete_at_timestamp(timestamp):
diff --git a/test/unit/common/test_utils.py b/test/unit/common/test_utils.py
index 1ea3a2dcec..7093249ae8 100644
--- a/test/unit/common/test_utils.py
+++ b/test/unit/common/test_utils.py
@@ -859,6 +859,24 @@ class TestUtils(unittest.TestCase):
             real = utils.last_modified_date_to_timestamp(last_modified)
             self.assertEqual(real, ts, "failed for %s" % last_modified)
 
+    def test_last_modified_date_to_timestamp_when_system_not_UTC(self):
+        try:
+            old_tz = os.environ.get('TZ')
+            # Western Argentina Summer Time. Found in glibc manual; this
+            # timezone always has a non-zero offset from UTC, so this test is
+            # always meaningful.
+            os.environ['TZ'] = 'WART4WARST,J1/0,J365/25'
+
+            self.assertEqual(utils.last_modified_date_to_timestamp(
+                '1970-01-01T00:00:00.000000'),
+                0.0)
+
+        finally:
+            if old_tz is not None:
+                os.environ['TZ'] = old_tz
+            else:
+                os.environ.pop('TZ')
+
     def test_backwards(self):
         # Test swift.common.utils.backward