diff --git a/dev-requirements.txt b/dev-requirements.txt
index a367f706e76..a3f1507fc69 100644
--- a/dev-requirements.txt
+++ b/dev-requirements.txt
@@ -11,3 +11,4 @@ pytest >= 3.2
 prometheus_client >= 0.6.0
 jupyter-server-proxy >= 1.1.0
 pytest-asyncio
+pickle5; python_version >= '3.6' and python_version < '3.8'
diff --git a/distributed/protocol/pickle.py b/distributed/protocol/pickle.py
index 629fb962fbf..50612782d4b 100644
--- a/distributed/protocol/pickle.py
+++ b/distributed/protocol/pickle.py
@@ -3,8 +3,11 @@
 
 import cloudpickle
 
-if sys.version_info.major == 2:
-    import cPickle as pickle
+if sys.version_info.major == 3 and sys.version_info.minor < 8:
+    try:
+        import pickle5 as pickle
+    except ImportError:
+        import pickle
 else:
     import pickle