diff --git a/drivers/staging/android/ion/heaps/ion_system_heap.c b/drivers/staging/android/ion/heaps/ion_system_heap.c
index 6c9bfc8ff4b5..333608288de6 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/android/ion/heaps/ion_system_heap.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/android/ion/heaps/ion_system_heap.c
@@ -670,8 +670,8 @@ static struct task_struct *ion_create_kworker(struct ion_page_pool **pools,
 	attr.sched_nice = ION_KTHREAD_NICE_VAL;
 	buf = cached ? "cached" : "uncached";
 
-	thread = kthread_create(ion_sys_heap_worker, pools,
-				"ion-pool-%s-worker", buf);
+	thread = kthread_run(ion_sys_heap_worker, pools,
+			     "ion-pool-%s-worker", buf);
 	if (IS_ERR(thread)) {
 		pr_err("%s: failed to create %s worker thread: %ld\n",
 		       __func__, buf, PTR_ERR(thread));