diff --git a/drivers/net/bonding/bond_main.c b/drivers/net/bonding/bond_main.c
index 0a7e32578540..a620dfae1c82 100644
--- a/drivers/net/bonding/bond_main.c
+++ b/drivers/net/bonding/bond_main.c
@@ -2396,11 +2396,14 @@ void bond_loadbalance_arp_mon(struct work_struct *work)
 	struct list_head *iter;
 	int do_failover = 0;
 
-	read_lock(&bond->lock);
-
-	if (!bond_has_slaves(bond))
+	if (!rtnl_trylock())
 		goto re_arm;
 
+	if (!bond_has_slaves(bond)) {
+		rtnl_unlock();
+		goto re_arm;
+	}
+
 	oldcurrent = bond->curr_active_slave;
 	/* see if any of the previous devices are up now (i.e. they have
 	 * xmt and rcv traffic). the curr_active_slave does not come into
@@ -2481,13 +2484,12 @@ void bond_loadbalance_arp_mon(struct work_struct *work)
 		write_unlock_bh(&bond->curr_slave_lock);
 		unblock_netpoll_tx();
 	}
+	rtnl_unlock();
 
 re_arm:
 	if (bond->params.arp_interval)
 		queue_delayed_work(bond->wq, &bond->arp_work,
 				   msecs_to_jiffies(bond->params.arp_interval));
-
-	read_unlock(&bond->lock);
 }
 
 /*