By Mike Dunn

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — A top Philadelphia union leader says he’s fully behind a move by the board of the Pennsylvania Convention Center to look at potentially privatizing the center’s management.

Since it opened 20 years ago, the Convention Center has been run by a politically appointed board that oversees paid staff.

Now, the board has issued a request for proposals to see if private companies that operate large centers might do a better job at running the place.

Pat Gillespie, head of the Building Trades Council, representing unions at the center, has a seat on the board and supports the move.

“The action we took will give us information, just to guide us. Whether or not we go to outsourcing the management to a firm, or whether we get suggestions from those folks to help our present managers, I don’t know how that’s going to wind up,” he told KYW Newsradio Friday morning.

The board would not decide the matter until June at the earliest.